Seed Dispersal

A Seba's short-tailed bat (Carollia perspicillata) is carrying a piper fruit (Piper tuberculatum). It will be eaten like we eat corn on the cob. Just one bat can carry up to 60,000 piper seeds to new locations in a single night. If even one-tenth of one percent of those seeds survive to become new seedlings that would be 20,000 annually. These bats are key dispersers of "pioneer plants" into new clearings. Seed Dispersal

Central AmericaCosta RicaLatin AmericaMerlin Tuttle's Bat ConservationPhyllostomidaeSeba's shorttailed fruit bat Carollia perspicillataSmugMugbatbat conservationcarrying piper fruit Piper tuberculatumcutemammalphotographywildlife photography