Antillean fruit-eating bat

The Antillean fruit-eating bat, Brachyphylla cavernarum, is a leaf-nosed bat of the Caribbean and one of the two species in the genus Brachyphylla. It lives on Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles as far south as St. Vincent and Barbados, and fossils show it also occurred on New Providence in the Bahamas. Three subspecies are recognised, the largest on the islands from St. Croix to St. Vincent, an intermediate form on Puerto Rico and most of the Virgin Islands, and a small one on Barbados. Adults measure roughly 65 to 118 millimetres and average about 45 grams, with pale yellow-white hair at the base and darker colouring on the back. It roosts in caves, wells, cliffs, buildings and dense treetops, usually away from direct sunlight, and leaves the roost about an hour after sunset to forage in the canopy and on the ground. Its diet is varied, taking fruit such as papaya and mango, pollen, nectar and insects.