The four islands of the Greater Antilles, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, and the surrounding smaller islands are home to a diverse indigenous bat fauna.
Cuba
Cuba, the largest of the Antilles, and its surrounding islands, of which the Isla de la Juventud is the most significant, harbor a diverse bat fauna.
Hispaniola, the second largest of the Antilles, is politically divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Various bats are known from both the main island and several surrounding islands, including Gonâve Island.
The double island of Guadeloupe, which consists of two parts separated only by a narrow channel, is the core of the Frenchoverseas department of Guadeloupe.
The bat fauna of the Windward Islands is more diverse than that of the Leeward Islands, reflecting the islands' location closer to the South American mainland.
The island of Grenada, the southernmost of the main island chain of the Lesser Antilles, is part of an independent state that also comprises the southern Grenadines, including Carriacou.
Trinidad, the larger island of Trinidad and Tobago, is close to mainland Venezuela and as a result has a very diverse bat fauna, including over 60 species, more than on any other Caribbean island, including much larger islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola.[90]
Eptesicus fuscus (Abaco, New Providence, Andros, Great Exuma, Little Exuma, Crooked Island, Acklin's Island, Long Island, San Salvador)[3][6]
Erophylla sezekorni (Great Abaco, Eleuthera, Long Island, Cat Island, Great Exuma, Little Exuma, San Salvador, Crooked Island, Acklin's Island, Great Inagua, Andros, Mayaguana, New Providence)[3][6][13]
Escudo de Veraguas is a small island off northwestern Panama. Despite the fact that it has been isolated from the mainland for only 9000 years, it supports at least two mammals that occur nowhere else, including the bat Dermanura watsoni incomitata and a sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus.[172] Several other mammals on the island also differ from mainland forms.[173]
Isla Margarita is the largest island of Venezuela. Like Trinidad and Tobago, Isla Margarita is a land-bridge island with a relatively diverse bat fauna.
^Escobedo-Cabrera et al., 2006, p. 129. Some authors have identified the single known specimen from Cozumel as Micronycteris megalotis (=M. microtis mexicana) instead.
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