Little Mariana Fruit Bat (Guam Flying-Fox)

 

Happy Halloween 2021!  

Bats are synonymous with Halloween. Many people suffer from "chiroptophobia", the fear of bats.  Bats are nocturnal. They are a flying mammal.  They do swoop through the air seemingly at random.  Bats use their echolocation, which can be an eerie noise to hear, but one bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes each night. 

Some bats don't stick to the usual bug diet.  They eat fruit.  In fact the the Little Mariana Fruit Bat was one of those fruit bat species.  There are at least 11 other species of bat that have also gone extinct.

Also known as the Guam Flying-Fox, this fruit bat was first discovered in 1931.  It would often mix itself among the larger Marianas flying-fox.

The last Little Mariana Fruit Bat was a female found at Tarague Cliff in March of 1967.  A young flying-fox flew away but was never seen again.

Guam's history has played a role in the extinction of its species.  It was occupied by Chamorros. Then Magellan landed on Guam on his fatal round the world journey.  Thus it was claimed by Spain.  Later The United States claimed it as a U.S. territory.  During WW II, the Japanese occupied Guam and renamed it Omiya Jima.  After 3 years, the U.S. reclaimed Guam, and it's still a U.S. territory, like Washington D.C. or the Virgin Islands today.  

Because of this, Guam has experienced myriads of extinctions.  Though the cultural clashes did affect species in Guam, it was the introduction of the brown tree snake has led to the extinction of 9 of 11 bird species as well as many native lizard species.  This invasive species did well on Guam, so well that portions of the island that used to be filled with birds singing, are now eerily silent.  In fact in June of 2020, the U.S. funded $3.4 million, to remove the brown tree snakes from Guam.

How do snakes with cat-like eyes and quiet, birdless forests have anything to do with fruit bats?  Actually, quite a bit.  Without Guam's birds pollinating the fruit trees, the fruit bats have less to eat.  With less fruit to eat, there are less fruit bats to eat the fruit and distribute the seeds via its poop.

Additional Resources

* https://www.fws.gov/refuge/guam/wildlife_and_habitat/mariana_fruit_bat.html

* https://www.guampedia.com/fanihi-mariana-fruit-bat/

* https://www.12images.net/endangered-and-extinct-animals/the-little-mariana-fruit-bat/

* VIDEO - Caring for other fruit bats = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuvaos1WHTk

* VIDEO - Info on Guam's fruit bats = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pny1LMWGWHM






Critically Endangered Guam Rail

Critically Endangered Guam Kingfisher

Picture from "A Gap in Nature"










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KAWEKAWEAU (DELCOURT'S GIANT GECKO)

Image
The Kawekaweau was the largest member of the gecko family that lived in New Zealand.  It was nearly 24 inches long, which is about twice as large as any other gecko species ever known.  It was the width of a man's wrist and had reddish stripes running the length of its body. Scientists thought that the Kawekaweau was simply a legend for a long time. The name Delcourt comes from the French scientist who rediscovered the only known specimen of of the Kawekaweau in the Natural History Museum of Marseille in 1986. The last recorded living Kawekaweau was in 1870 by a Maori chief.  It is thought that the arrival of Europeans and the invasive species they brought; rats, cats, and weasels took their toll on the Kawekaweau. Additional Resources: http://gizmodo.com/this-specimen-of-an-extinct-giant-gecko-was-found-in-a-1742435773 Drawing from the book, A Gap in Nature The only known specimen of a Kawekaweau
Read more

Visiting Lonesome George in NYC and Martha the Passenger Pigeon in DC

Image
I started this blog  to point out animals you'll never get a chance to meet first hand.  No, I'm not talking about unicorns or centaurs, but about recently extinct animals.  2014 was a big one in extinction news because it marked the 100 year anniversary of the passenger pigeon, when Martha died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914 at 1pm.  I took my family to the Cincinnati Zoo, but Martha's statue wasn't there because they were building a memorial that opened a few weeks after our visit. My wife and I also got to see the real Lonesome George who was on display in New York at the Natural History Museum, before being shipped back to be displayed in the Galapagos.  
Read more

YUNNAN LAKE NEWT

Image
The Yunnan Lake Newt (YLN) was a newt that lived in the region in and around Kunming Lake in the Yunnan Providence in China.  The YLN was about an inch long and the male and female coloration varied slightly. The Yunnan Lake Newt was last seen in 1979.  As the cities around its lake habitat increased, its population plummeted. Amphibians like frogs, salamanders, and newts are extremely vulnerable to pollution because they absorb water, oxygen, and even toxins through their porous skin.  There are many concerns for many amphibian species today (see 2nd link below). Besides pollution, habitat loss for increased housing also took its toll on the YLN population.  The addition of invasive species were the nail in the coffin for this species.  The newts couldn't compete with the addition of domestic ducks, exotic fish and frogs added to the lake. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1367 http://frogsaregreen.o...
Read more