Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:48:20.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Pemba fruit bat—on the edge of extinction?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2009

Ole Seehausen
Ole Seehausen
Affiliation:
Lavesstr. 18, 3000 Hannover 1, Germany
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The population of endemic fruit bats on Pemba Island, which lies off the coast of Tanzania, appears to have undergone a drastic decline. The author made a short survey in 1989 in some of the areas where the fruit bat was reported to have been numerous, but found that few now exist in these places. The change from traditional hunting methods to the use of shotguns as well as destruction of the island's rain forest are believed to be the principal causes. The author makes a plea for a ban on hunting, a public education campaign, protection of the surviving remnants of forest and a captive-breeding effort as a safeguard against extinction.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 1991 , pp. 110 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1991

References

Carroll, J.B. 1985. The flying foxes (Pteropus spp.) of the western Indian Ocean islands and a footnote on Rousettus obliviosus. Bat News, 4, 4–5.Google Scholar
Hill, J.E. 1971. The Bats of Aldabra Atoll, Western Indian Ocean. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 260, 573–576.Google Scholar
Kingdon, J. 1974. East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa. IIA (Insectivores and Bats). Academic Press, London and New York.Google Scholar
Moreau, R.E. and Pakenham, R.H.W. 1941. The land vertebrates of Pemba, Zanzibar and Mafia: a zoogeographical study, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, (A) 110, 97–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pakenham, R.H.W. 1984. The Mammals of Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. Privately published by R. H. W. Pakenham.Google Scholar
Wirth, R. and Riffel, M. 1989. Bedrohte Flughunde, Newsletter of the Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations, 03 1989.Google Scholar