''Artibeus aequatorialis,'' also known as Anderson's fruit-eating bat or the Ecuadorian fruit-eating bat, is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family Phyllostomidae. The bat is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to northwestern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

west of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

mountain range.

Taxonomy

It was previously considered a subspecies of the

Jamaican fruit bat The Jamaican, common, or Mexican fruit bat (''Artibeus jamaicensis'') is a frugivorous bat species native species, native to the Neotropical realm, Neotropics. Description The Jamaican fruit bat is a medium-sized bat, having a total length of ...

(''A.'' ''jamaicensis)''. Larsen elevated it to species level on the basis of morphometric and genetic data.

Habitat and distribution

The bat is found in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. It inhabits tropical dry forests and tropical lowland forests of the Chocó. It seems to be more common in humid forests. The northernmost and southernmost extent of its range are unknown.

Conservation

The species has been assessed as least-concern by the IUCN due to its large range, and relative abundance. The threats to this species are not known. However, it occurs in some nature reserves (private and national) in its range in western Ecuador. It also occurs in some national parks in Peru.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q81849769 aequatorialis