Cuban Flower Bat - Behaviour and Ecology

Behaviour and Ecology

Like most bats, the Cuban flower bat is nocturnal. It spends the day in colonies of several thousand individuals in narrow, blind-ending cave galleries. Such caves are often shared with other species of bat, including the Cuban fruit-eating bat, the buffy flower bat and various moustached bats. During the night, Cuban flower bats feed primarily on seeds and flower pollen from a wide range of plants, although they do also eat some flying insects. They are typically gregarious animals, flying in groups of up to thirty individuals during the night. The main predators of Cuban flower bats include Barn Owls, Stygian Owls, and Cuban boas.

Females come into oestrus once a year, probably around December. The gestation period is unknown, but is likely to be around six months. The mother gives birth to a single, hairless infant, weighing around 5 grams (0.2 oz).

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