Jamaican Fruit Bat - Behavior and Life History

Behavior and Life History

When in their roosts, the Jamaican fruit bat has a reproductive system known as "resource defensive polygyny". That is, males will claim an area as a territory and females select the best territories to roost and mate in. Subadult males may remain in their natal roosts while females may leave to gather with other females elsewhere. In caves where there are enough roosting sites, some "female defensive polygyny". Here, harem males actively defend females during the breeding seasons and will attack satellite males that roost in the walls and ceilings of caves. However, they tolerate males who are subordinate to them in their harems. Satellite males are more common in large group than smaller groups and dominant and subordinates males will cooperative to defend harem females. In large groups, dominant males may be the fathers of the subordinates.

When bats going on foraging trips, it is the dominant males that are the first to leave to the roosting sites and the last to return. At dusk, males spend much time flying near the tree roosts displacing any intruders. Jamaican fruit bats are most active at midnight, following that, activity begins to die down.

When captured, a Jamaican fruit bat will warn conspecifics with a distress call made of a long series of pulses typically lasting 15 kHz. The Jamaican fruit bat will also retacts to the distress calls of other species and to their own recorded calls. The fruit bat is considered a whisper bat and makes 3 low-intensity FM pulses during flight and when resting.

Breeding in the Jamaican fruit bat that is bimodal and polyestrous with births being dependant on fruit abundance. Females give birth twice a year with one young on average for each birth. Mating is highest at the end of the wet season and births take place in the dry months. Embryonic development may delay in the second breeding season but parturition will occur in the follow breeding period. The testes of the males enlarge when females enter estrous. The testes tend to be slightly larger in harem males than bachelors and the canine teeth tend to be more worn in the former. Copulations occurs until 2–25 days after the previous births. Pups born in a harem may sometimes be sired by satellite or subordinate males depending on the size of the group. Gestation is usually 3.5-4 months but can be as long as 7 months when there's delayed embryonic development. The females gives births while perching and the newborn emergesm unaided, head first. The mothers will eat the placenta. Mothers carry their pups when they are one day old but later leave in the roosting area for the day. The female’s nipples become enlarged during lactation. Young are weaned by 15 days. Young gain a full, permanent set of teeth at 40 days and can fly by 50 days when their forearms are fully developed. Female are sexually mature by eight months and males by 12 months.