The Guam flying fox (''Pteropus tokudae''), also known as the little Marianas fruit bat, is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of small

megabat Megabats constitute the Family (biology), family Pteropodidae of the Order (biology), order Chiroptera. They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genus, genera ''Acerodon'' and ''Pteropus''—Pteropus, flyin ...

endemic to

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

in the

Marianas Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

that was confirmed extinct due to hunting or habitat changes. It was first recorded in 1931 and was observed roosting with the larger and much more common Mariana fruit bat. The last specimen was a female found roosting at Tarague cliff in March 1967, but it escaped capture. An unconfirmed sighting took place sometime during the 1970s, and no other individuals have been sighted since then.

Description

The Guam flying fox had a length of about , a wingspan of about , and a body weight of . It was very similar in appearance to the Chuuk flying fox ('' Pteropus insularis''). The top of the head was greyish, while its back, throat, and underparts were brown or dark brown, and the side of the neck was golden-brown.

Behaviour

Little is known about the behaviour of this flying fox, but it is likely that it fed on the fruits, flowers, and foliage of evergreen shrubs and trees that are characteristic of the limestone forests found in the northern part of Guam. Similarly, not much is known about its reproductive habits, but an incident in 1968, where a female was shot, revealed that she was accompanied by an immature individual. This suggests the possibility of ongoing parental care.

Status

There are no confirmed records of sightings of this bat since the 1970s and the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

lists it as being "

Extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

". The guam flying fox was last seen in 1967 and it was declared extinct in the wild in 1976. The guam flying fox was declared extinct by the IUCN Red List in 2004. When it was more plentiful, it was hunted by humans for food, which may have contributed to its extinction. Another factor may have been the introduction, into the island, of the

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

brown tree snake The brown tree snake (''Boiga irregularis''), also known as the brown catsnake, is an arboreal rear-fanged colubrid snake native to eastern and northern coastal Australia, eastern Indonesia (Sulawesi to Papua), Papua New Guinea, and many island ...

(''Boiga irregularis''). In September 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed declaring the species extinct, and it was delisted effective November 2023 in accordance with the

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of e ...

Footnotes

References

* Flannery, Tim and Peter Schouten (2001). ''A Gap in Nature''. Published by William Heinemann {{Taxonbar, from=Q1552684 Pteropus Bats of Oceania Fauna of Guam Extinct animals of Oceania Mammal extinctions since 1500 Species made extinct by human activities 1967 in the environment Mammals described in 1934