| Pteropus tokudae
|
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| Kingdom |
Animalia |
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| Phylum |
Chordata |
| Class |
Mammalia |
| Order |
Chiroptera
|
| Suborder |
Megachiroptera
|
| Family |
Pteropodidae
|
| Genus |
Pteropus |
| Species |
Pteropus
tokudae |
| Authority |
Tate,
1934 |
| |
| English
Name |
Guam
Flying Fox, Guam Fruit Bat, Little Mariana Fruit Bat, Tokuda's Flying Fox,
Tokuda's Fruit Bat |
| Dutch
Name |
Guam
Vleerhond |
| French
Name |
Roussette de Guam |
| German
Name |
Guam-Flughund |
| Japanese
Name |
グアムオオコウモリ |
| Spanish
Name |
Zorro Volador de
Tokuda |
| |
| Taxonomy |
Tate
(1934) believed that the Guam Flying Fox was closely related to or perhaps
a subspecies of the Chuuk Flying Fox (Pteropus insularis) from
Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia. |
| |
| Comments |
The
Mariana Fruit Bat (Pteropus marianus marianus) and the Guam
Flying Fox or Little Mariana Fruit Bat (Pteropus tokudae) are both
called "fanihi" in Chamorro, a language spoken in Guam and the
Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). (USFWS 2008) |
| |
| Characteristics |
Guam
Flying Foxes measure 140 to 151 mm, with a wingspan of 650 to 709 mm. The
abdomen and wings are brown to dark brown but with few whitish hairs. The
mantle and sides of the neck vary from brown to pale gold. The top of the
head is greyish to yellowish brown while the throat and chin are dark
brown. (USFWS 2008) |
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
 This
bat species was endemic to Guam (Chiroptera Specialist Group 1996), an
island in the Western Pacific Ocean and is an organized unincorporated
territory of the United States. Guam is the largest and southernmost of
the Mariana Islands.
Image: a map showing location of
the island of Guam (in red) in the West Pacific Ocean. Created by Peter Maas for The Extinction Website. The
copyright holder of this work has released it into the public domain.
This applies worldwide.
|
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| Food |
The
diet probably consists of fruits and flowers of trees found in limestone
forest (ESIS 1996). |
| |
| Reproduction |
The
only information Guam Flying Fox reproductive behaviour was gathered from
a single female shot by hunters on 5 June 1968 (Perez 1972a; Perez 1972b).
This animal was with a juvenile that was able to fly away, which may
indicate that mothers care for their young for at least several months. (ESIS
1996). |
| |
| History
& Population |
Only
three specimens of the Guam Flying Fox have been collected, the last being
shot by hunters in 1968. Despite intensive field work on the island’s
fruit bats, no observations of the Guam Fruit Bat have been recorded since
this time. Although, there was a possible sighting of this species in the
late 1970s (Bonaccorso et al.
2008; Chiroptera Specialist Group 1996). |
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
The
species was hunted locally as a food source and Fruit bats are considered
a delicacy in the Marianas. This is thought to be the main actor involved
in the demise of this species (Chiroptera Specialist Group 1996). Other
possible reasons that may have caused further decline of the Guam Flying
Fox after World War II are habitat destruction (forest clearing,
alteration, etc.) and predation by introduced brown tree snakes (Boiga
irregularis). (Wiles 1987)
|
| |
| Conservation
Attempts |
Fruit
bats received limited protection in 1966 when the Government of Guam ended
year-round hunting of bats and established a 10-week hunting season for
them. The Government of Guam has four conservation reserves that occupy
about 4,200 acres of land for the protection of wildlife and native
habitats. Additional protection was given to fruit bats in 1981 and 1984
when both species of Guam were placed on the Guam and United States
Endangered Species Lists. The species were reclassified by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service from endangered to threatened status on Guam and
newly listed as threatened in the CNMI on January 6, 2005. (USFWS 2008) |
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
The
type and paratype specimens of Pteropus tokudae, along with the skull of a third
animal, are deposited in the American Museum of Natural History (Tate,
1934). No other specimens are known to exist (ESIS 1996). |
| |
| Relatives |
 Its
relatives are the other bats of the genus Pteropus, belonging to the Megachiroptera
suborder, the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as the Fruit Bats or Flying Foxes among other numerous colloquial names.
The Guam Flying Fox belongs to the pselaphon species group together
with Pteropus vetulus, Pteropus insularis, Pteropus
phaeocephalus, Pteropus pselaphon, Pteropus pilosus, Pteropus
tuberculatus, Pteropus nitendiensis, and Pteropus
leucopterus. (Nowak 1999)
Other recently extinct bats from
this genus are the Dusky Flying Fox (Pteropus brunneus), the Large
Palau Flying Fox (Pteropus pilosus), and the Small Mauritian Flying
Fox or Dark Flying Fox (Pteropus subniger).
Photo: a Mariana Fruit Bat from
Guam (Pteropus mariannus
mariannus). Photographed
by Ann Hudgins from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 7 January 2005.
This image is the work of an U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee,
taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a
work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
For more information, see the Fish
and Wildlife Service copyright policy.
|
| |
| Links |
Guam
flying fox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species: Pteropus tokudae
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References
(Complete
website)
|
Bonaccorso,
F., Helgen, K., Allison, A. & Wiles, G. 2008. Pteropus tokudae. In:
IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 25 December 2008.
Chiroptera
Specialist Group (1996). Pteropus tokudae. In: IUCN 2007. 2007
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 12 March 2008.
ESIS (1996) Taxonomy - Species BAT,
FRUIT, MARIANA, LITTLE, Species Id ESIS051006, Date 14 MAR 96. Endangered
Species Information System. <http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/WWW/esis/lists/e051006.htm>
Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker's
Mammals of the World, 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore and London.
Perez, G.S.A. (1972a). Observations
of Guam bats. Micronesica 8:141-149.
Perez, G.S.A. (1972b). Unpubl.
Data. Div. of Aquatic and Wildl. Res., Dept. of Agriculture, P.O. Box
2950, Agana, Guam 96910.
Tate, G.H.H. (1934). Bats from the
Pacific Islands, including a new fruit bat from Guam. Am. Mus. Novit., No.
713. 3 pp.
USFWS (2008) PI-Endangered Species: Mariana Fruit Bat.
Downloaded on 12 March 2008 from http://www.fws.gov/pacificislands/wesa/marianabatindex.html.
Wiles, G.J. (1987). The status of
fruit bats on Guam. Pac. Sci. 41:148-157.
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Last
updated: 25th December 2008.
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page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
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