Critically Endangered Fruit Bat Make Dramatic Return From Brink Of Extinction

ScienceDaily 3 Nov 08;

A once critically endangered bat species, the ‘Pemba flying fox’, has made a dramatic return from the brink of extinction, according to new research. As recently as 1989, only a scant few individual fruit bats could be observed on the tropical island of Pemba, off Tanzania. Its numbers have since soared to an astounding 22,000 bats in less than 20 years, the new research finds.


The species was facing imminent extinction in the 1990’s when Fauna & Flora International (FFI) first took action to save it. Once considered a delicacy, these charismatic bats were hunted and eaten widely throughout the island. By the 1990s the bats looked doomed, with 95% of its forest habitat destroyed and an extremely slow reproductive rate (just one young per adult female each year).

The FFI-initiated survey, carried out by Janine Robinson for the University of East Anglia, indicates that the Pemba flying fox population has fully recovered to at least 22,000 but possibly up to 35,600 individuals – proving that conservation can work, even in the most dire-seeming situations.

Over the past 13 years, FFI has helped to reduce the threat from hunting, set up two new forest reserves to safeguard the bat’s habitat and raised awareness of the need for conservation throughout Pemba’s communities. The species has now been downgraded to ‘Vulnerable’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List for threatened species.

Today, Pemba flying foxes are much loved by islanders, with local people helping to protect the bat through community-led “Pemba flying fox clubs”.

FFI East Africa Programme Assistant, Joy Juma, has played a crucial role in FFI’s efforts to save the bat.

“Less than twenty years ago this bat looked set to disappear off the face of the planet forever. Thanks to the enthusiasm of local people, FFI’s ongoing conservation efforts have managed to claw this species back from the brink of extinction,” said Joy. “At one time roast bat was a very common dish on Pemba. Now people value the bats for different reasons.”

This recovery is testament to successful emergency intervention efforts by FFI, working closely with a local partner, the Department of Commercial Crops, Fruits and Forestry (DCCFF).

Flying Fox Facts:

• The Pemba flying fox is a type of ‘old world fruit bat’, endemic to the island of Pemba, Tanzania, meaning it cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
• The bat’s wingspan is estimated at over 5.5 feet.
• The bat has an average body weight of between 400-650g, which is about half the weight of the average guinea pig.
• Fruit bats are ecologically and economically important - particularly so on oceanic islands - playing a vital role as seed dispersers and pollinators and facilitating ‘gene flow’ between isolated populations of plants.
• Flying foxes belong to the sub-order Megachiroptera, of which there are 167 species worldwide, and are the largest bats in the world.
• Island endemic species are thought to be particularly vulnerable to extinction, primarily due to their small geographic range. The fact that they have evolved in isolation from predators and competitors (particularly humans), makes them vulnerable to the effects of overexploitation and introduced species.
• Islands have been highlighted as one of the priority areas for the global conservation of bats, as they contain a large proportion of the world’s most threatened bats.

Five-Foot Bat, African Delicacy, Is Out in Force for Halloween
Alex Morales, Bloomberg 31 Oct 08;

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Halloween is getting spookier on Pemba, an island off Tanzania. A giant bat species on the edge of extinction more than a decade ago has quadrupled in number to at least 22,000.

The increase is due to efforts to protect the forest habitat of the creature, known as the Pemba flying fox, and to stop locals from eating the mammal, Fauna and Flora International, a conservation group that's worked for 13 years to preserve the species, said today in an e-mailed statement.

"It's considered a delicacy, and they used to roast it like a chicken, but they don't do that anymore," Joy Juma, who works on the group's East Africa program, said in a telephone interview from Nairobi, Kenya, where she is based. Locals now "benefit from preservation of the bat because tourists come to the island and pay to visit the roost sites."

The bat, whose wingspan can reach 5 1/2 feet (1.7 meters), is a rare conservation success. Half of all mammal species are declining, with only 5 percent on the rise, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Oct. 6 when it published its Red List of endangered species.

The Pemba flying fox now numbers at least 22,000, according to a Fauna and Flora survey carried out from March to June. That's up from as few as 4,600 in 1997 and just a few hundred individuals in the early 1990s, according to the Red List, which categorizes the species as "vulnerable." That's the third highest degree of threat for animals still found in the wild.

The bat, whose Latin name is Pteropus voeltzkowi, has black wings and a tawny body and as an adult weighs between 400 and 650 grams (14 to 23 ounces), less than a typical guinea pig.

Tourists, Mosques

Tour guides have been trained and a visitor center has been built to help local residents benefit from ecotourism and the preservation of indigenous wildlife, Cambridge, England-based Fauna and Flora International said. The group has also helped set up two forest reserves to protect the Pemba flying fox.

Money from guided tours to the areas where the bats roost is plowed back into community funds to pay for communal water pipes and the electricity in mosques, Juma said. "This is a very good example of how you can work with the community to ensure that a species can be conserved."