The Pacific Bat page

Sharing knowledge across the Pacific

Current work and workers

• Who: Anne Brooke
• Where: Guam and Mariana Islands
• Nature of current work: Population surveys of Pteropus marianus on Guam and in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Member Mariana fruit bat recovery team.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Brooke, A.P., Solek, C. and Tualaulelei, A., 2000. Roosting behavior of solitary and colonial flying foxes in American Samoa (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae). Biotropica, 32: 338-350.
  • Brooke, A.P., 2001. Population status and behaviours of the Samoa flying fox, Pteropus samoensis, on Tutuila Island, American Samoa. Journal of Zoology, London, 254: 309-319.
  • Brooke, A.P. and Tschapka, M., 2002. Threates from overhunting to the flying fox Pteropus tonganus (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) on Niue Island, South Pacific Ocean. Biological Conservation, 103: 343-348.
  • Brooke, A., 2004. Report to the Department of Environment of the Status of Peka, September 2004., Alofi, Niue.
  • Brooke, A.P., 1999. The status of the flying fox on Niue: population estimates of Pteropus tonganus., South Pacific Regional Biodiversity Program, Apia, Samoa.
• Contact: brookea@guam.navy.mil and brookeguam@yahoo.com
  

• Who: Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, American Samoa Government
• Where: American Samoa
• Nature of current work:
  • Long-term Population Monitoring of Pteropus samoensis and P. tonganus
  • Assessment of status of Emballonura semicaudata, including (by FY08) an analysis of paleontological deposits in caves
  • Analysis of habitat use patterns in P. samoensis and tonganus using radiotelemetry
  • Phylogeographic study of P. tonganus and P. samoensis (New Caledonia through Samoan Archipelago), including intrapopulation analysis of genetic variation; also to include P. ornatus and P. vetulus from New Caledonia; and Notopteris macdonaldi and N. neocaledonica
  • Regional survey of ectoparasites of bat species mentioned above
  • Regional study of hematozoic infections of fruit bat species mentioned above, plus preliminary screening for viral infections
  • Other natural history and ecological studies
• Reports or articles available:
• Contact: RCB Utzurrum (dmwr-wildlife@samoatelco.com)

• Who: Donald Drake
• Where: American Samoa, Fiji, Tonga
• Nature of current work: Interested in plant ecology, especially aspects of seed ecology that influence plant population and community dynamics and are relevant to conservation in the Pacific region. Increasingly interested in studying how changes in Polynesian animal communities (pollinators, seed dispersers, and seed predators) affect plant recruitment from seed. Currently supervising a PhD student working on bats in American Samoa and assisting a PhD student (working with Sophie Petit at the University of South Australia) in Fiji.
• Reports or articles available:
  • McConkey, K. R., & D. R. Drake 2006. Flying foxes cease to function as seed dispersers long before they become rare. Ecology 87:271-276.
  • McConkey, K. R., D. R. Drake, J. Franklin, & F. Tonga. 2004. Effects of Cyclone Waka on flying fox populations in Tonga. Journal of Tropical Ecology 20:555-561.
• Contact: dondrake@hawaii.edu
• Website: http://www.hawaii.edu/eecb/FacultyPgs/donalddrake.htm

• Who: Holly Freifeld
• Where: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
• Nature of current work: Coordinating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery planning for Pteropus mariannus in the Mariana Islands.
• Reports or articles available:
• Contact: holly_freifeld@fws.gov
• Website:

• Who: Guam Department of Agriculture, Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources (DAWR)
• Where: Guam
• Nature of current work: Monthly counts of the bat colony, Pteropus mariannus, in Guam. The USDA is being contracted to do snake control around the colony and with that project there will be more monitoring done to establish the buffer zone needed to minimized disturbance.
• Reports or articles available:
• Contact: Jeff Quitugua: jeff_quitugua73@yahoo.com
• Website:

• Who: Simon Mickleburgh
• Where: based in London, UK, working on bats globally.
• Nature of current work: Working as Grants Manager for The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation, a family foundation that channels most of its funds to nature conservation projects in developing countries. Previously Bat Group Officer at the Bat Conservation Trust in the UK and prior to that Senior Conservation Researcher based at Fauna & Flora International in Cambridge, UK undertaking a range of international bat projects. Co-authored (with Prof Paul Racey and Mr Tony Hutson) two global conservation action plans for megachiropteran and microchiropteran bats. Worked with Tony Hutson on status assessment for all bat species for the IUCN Red List. In 2004, undertook a project on the use of bats as bushmeat, the results of which are currently being submitted for publication in Oryx- The International Journal of Conservation jointly with Paul Racey and Kerry Waylen. In 2007, co-authored a book chapter on Bats and Islands with Kate Jones, Wes Sechrest and Allyson Walsh. Am interested in updating the action plans, particularly the megachiropteran one that was published in 1992, so looking for up to date information on status of bats in the Pacific region.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Mickleburgh, S.P., A.M. Hutson, and P.A. Racey, 1992. Old World Fruit Bats: An Action Plan for their Conservation. 252pp, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland.
  • Hutson, A.M., S.P. Mickleburgh, and P.A. Racey, 2001.Microchiropteran Bats. Global Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. 256 pp., IUCN, Gland.
  • Mickleburgh, Simon P., Anthony M. Hutson and Paul A. Racey, 2002. A review of the global conservation status of bats. Oryx, 36(1): 18-34.
• Contact: simon@rufford.org
• Website: http://www.rufford.org

• Who: Louise Shilton
• Where: Australia
• Nature of current work: · Principal Ecologist at Ecosure Pty Ltd, based in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Currently assessing Pteropus tonganus and P. samoensis populations on Samoa, and developing projects on other threatened species in the Pacific. Formerly worked for CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems on the landscape ecology of the Spectacled Flying Fox (P. conspicillatus) in Far North Queensland. Also researched seed dispersal by fruit bats on the Krakatau Islands, Indonesia, and their role in the establishment of island vegetation and rainforest regeneration.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Shilton, L.A., Altringham, J.D., Compton, S.G. & Whittaker, R.J. 1999. Old World fruit bats may be long-distance seed dispersers through extended retention of viable seeds in the gut. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B 266: 219-223.
  • Shilton, L.A., Latch, P., McKeown, A., Pert, P., & Westcott, D.A. Landscape-scale redistribution of a highly mobile threatened species, Pteropus conspicillatus (Chiroptera, Pteropodidae), in response to Tropical Cyclone Larry. Austral Ecology 33 (in press).
  • Shilton, L.A., & Whittaker, R.J. The role of pteropodid bats (Megachiroptera) in re-establishing tropical forests on Krakatau. Chapter 7 In: Island Bats: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation, T.H. Fleming & P. Racey (eds), University of Chicago Press (in press).
  • Parsons, J., Cairns, A., Johnson, C., Robson, S., Shilton, L.A. and Westcott, D. 2006. Diet variation in spectacled flying foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus) of the Australian Wet Tropics. Australian Journal of Zoology 54:417-428.
  • Parsons, J., Cairns, A., Johnson, C., Robson, S., Shilton, L.A. and Westcott, D. Bryophyte dispersal by flying foxes: A novel discovery. Oecologia 152:112–114.
• Contact:
  • lshilton@ecosure.com.au; Ph: +61 7 4031 9599
• Websites:
  • http://www.ecosure.com.au

• Who: Annette Scanlon, Supervisor: Dr. Sophie “Topa” Petit, (both U. South Australia); Co-supervisor: Dr. Don Drake (U. Hawaii)
• Where: Fiji Islands (Vanua Levu, Viti Levu, Taveuni)
• Nature of current work:
  Bat roles in rainforest maintenance and community perceptions (Title is Bat biodiversity in Fiji: rainforest conservation and community perspectives).
• Reports or articles available:
  • on request
• Contact: Annette.scanlon@unisa.edu.au

• Who: Matthew Struebig
• Where: Malaysia, based at Queen Mary, University of London, UK.
• Nature of current work:
  Impacts of forest fragmentation on the assemblage and genetic structure of tropical bats. Phd research (supervised by Stephen Rossiter and Richard Nichols) in Central Peninsular Malaysia. I am using harp-trap surveys, GIS and microsatellite genotyping to study how the structure of forest insectivorous bat assemblages varies over a fragmented landscape and whether this landscape impacts upon dispersal of selected species amongst forest fragments. A collaboration with Zubaid Akbar and Adura Bin Adnan of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Tigga Kingston of Texas Tech University through the Malaysian Bat Conservation Research Unit.
  Kalimantan Bat Conservation Project. Since 2002 I have led bat research and training expeditions to Indonesian Borneo the main aim of which is to model bat species distribution patterns and predict the most species diverse areas for setting bat conservation priorities. Surveys of several sites in Central and East Kalimantan have been undertaken working with The Nature Conservancy and Orangutan Foundation, and a study of the hunting of Pteropus vampyrus natunae is underway with The Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Struebig M, Galdikas, B & Suatma (2006) Bat diversity of oligotropic forests in southern Borneo. Oryx. 40. 447-455.
  • Struebig M, Benton-Browne A, Rachmad A, Yusliati N, Atmoko T, Rustam, Fredriksson G & Meijaard E (2006) A bat survey of Sungai Wain Protection Forest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Malayan Nature Journal 59,189-196.
  • Struebig M, Rossiter S, Bates P, Kingston T, Sein Sein Win & Khin Mya Mya (2005) Results of a recent bat survey in Upper Myanmar including new records from the Kachin forests. Acta Chiropterologica 7, 147-164.
  • Struebig M, Harrison M, Cheyne S & Limin S (In Press) Intensive hunting of large flying-foxes (Pteropus vampyrus natunae) in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Oryx.
  • Suyanto A & Struebig M (In review) Bats of the Sangkulirang limestone karst formations, East Kalimantan – a priority region for Bornean bat conservation. Acta Chiropterologica
• Contact: m.struebig@qmul.ac.uk
• Website: http://www.biology.qmul.ac.uk/research/staff/rossiter/MStruebig.htm

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This page was created on 6 July 2006 by JK and updated on 24 February 2009 by LEL.