Pteropus pilosus Andersen, 1908:369
Large Palau flying(-)fox, Large Pelew flying(-)fox, Belau fruit bat
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 1874 or before; 1873 (Fisher & Blomberg, 2012; Lee et al., 2017)
IUCN RedList status: Extinct
The reasons for the decline and extinction of this species are not understood, but it is likely that hunting by the natives contributed. Several surveys of the island fauna failed to locate this species in the 20th century (Mickelburgh et. al. 1992).
Distribution
Palau Islands (=Pelew Islands = Belau), Caroline Islands, Micronesia
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Only known from two specimens collected in 1874 or prior (Bonaccorso et. al. 2008), and now in the British Museum of Natural History (Mickleburgh et. al. 1992).
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Andersen, K. (1908). Twenty new forms of Pteropus. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, London (8) 2: 361-370.
Other references:
Andersen, K. (1912). Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the collections of the British Museum. Vol. 1. Megachiroptera. London: British Museum.
Bonaccorso, F., Helgen, K. & Allison, A. (2008). Pteropus pilosus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 19 October 2011.
Bonaccorso, F.J., Helgen, K. & Allison, A. 2019. Pteropus pilosus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T18749A22086230. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T18749A22086230.en. Accessed on 20 June 2022.
Coultas, W.F., 1931. Whitney South Seas Expedition journals, Vol. W. Journal and letters, Vol. II, of William F. Coultas, November, 1930 to December, 1931. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Unpublished.
Fisher, Diana O. and Blomberg, Simon P. (2012). Inferring Extinction of Mammals from Sighting Records, Threats, and Biological Traits. Conservation Biology 26(1): 57-67. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01797.x
Fisher, Diana O. and Humphreys, Aelys M. (2024). Evidence for modern extinction in plants and animals. Biological Conservation 298: 110772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110772
Flannery, Timothy F. (1995). Mammals of the South-west Pacific and Moluccan Islands. Comstock/Cornell, Ithaca, NY, 464 pp. [p. 282]
Jones, K.E. et al. 2009 PanTHERIA: A species-level database of life-history, ecology and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology 90, 2648.
Lee, T. E., Fisher, D. O., Blomberg, S. P. and Wintle, B. A. (2017). Extinct or still out there? Disentangling influences on extinction and rediscovery helps to clarify the fate of species on the edge. Global Change Biology 23(2): 621-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13421
Mickleburgh, Simon P., Hutson, Anthony M. and Racey, Paul A. (1992). Old World fruit bats. An action plan for their conservation. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. viii + 252 pp.
Owen, R. P. (1977). Terrestrial vertebrate fauna of the Palau Islands. Conservation Office, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Koror, Palau. Unpublished report.
Perez, G.S.A., 1968. Notes on Palau fruit bats. J. Mammal. 49: 758.
Simmons, N.B. and A.L. Cirranello. 2023. Bat Species of the World: A taxonomic and geographic database. Version 1.3. Accessed on 06/18/2023.
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]
Wiles, G.J., 1992. Recent trends in the fruit bat trade on Guam. In: Pacific island flying foxes: Proceedings of an international conservation conference (eds. D.E. Wilson and G.L. Graham), pp. 53-60. US Fish and Wildlife Service Biological Report 90(23). US Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington DC. [relevant citation?]
Wiles, G. J. and Conry, P. J. (1990). Terrestrial vertebrates of the Ngerukewid Islands Wildlife Preserve, Palau Islands. Micronesica 23: 41-66.
Wiles, G. J., Engbring, J. and Otobed, D. (1997). Abundance, biology, and human exploitation of bats in the Palau Islands. Journal of Zoology (London) 241: 203-227. [Abstract]
Wilson, D.E. & Reeder, D.M. 2005 Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference. Third edition. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/6526/pteropus-pilosus-large-palau-flying