Warning Before a Fight: The Role of Distance and Ritualized Agonistic Behaviors in Minimizing Aggression in the Jamaican Fruit Bat

In many vertebrates, ritualized behaviors serve to settle conflicts while minimizing the risk of injury. The Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) is a polygynous species that roosts in caves, where dominant males form and defend harems by displaying agonistic behaviors against satellite males attempting to mate with females. We examined how the distance of satellite males from the harem and the number of females influenced the latency of approach by dominant males during agonistic encounters, and whether these encounters follow a defined behavioral sequence. We analyzed 50 agonistic interactions from video recordings of A. jamaicensis harems collected between May and October 2021 in “Cantil Blanco” cave, Veracruz, Mexico. We quantified the number of females per harem and measured the distance of satellite males to the nearest female just before the dominant male initiated an approach. Our results show that satellite male distance determined dominant male approach latency, reflecting a minimum tolerable distance, whereas harem size had no effect. Furthermore, the succession of behaviors observed indicates that these encounters are sequential, escalating from ritualized displays to physical aggression.