The Guam flying fox (''Pteropus tokudae''), also known as the little Marianas fruit bat, was a tiny

megabat Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera ( bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genera '' Acerodon'' and '' Pteropus''— flying foxes. They are the only member of the ...

from

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic ce ...

in the Marianas Islands in

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

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 has a length of about , a wingspan of about , and a body weight of . It is very similar in appearance to the Chuuk flying fox (''

Pteropus insularis ''Pteropus pelagicus'' is a species of fruit bat in the family Pteropodidae. It includes two subspecies that were formerly recognized as full species— ''Pteropus insularis'' (Chuuk flying fox) and ''Pteropus phaeocephalus'' (Mortlock flyi ...

''). The top of the head is greyish, the back, throat and underparts brown or dark brown and the side of the neck golden-brown.

Behaviour

Little is known of the behaviour of this flying fox but it is likely to have fed on the fruits, flowers and foliage of evergreen shrubs and trees typical of the limestone forests that occur in the northern part of Guam. Nor is much known of its reproductive habits, but an individual observed in 1968, when a female was shot, was accompanied by an immature individual which suggests that there may have been some on-going parental care.

Status

There are no confirmed records of sightings of this bat since the 1970s and the IUCN lists it as being " Extinct". 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 where 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 t ...

Brown tree snake (''Boiga irregularis''). In September 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially declared the species extinct.

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 ESA endangered species