Photo: Roosting fruit bats in Papua New Guinea, by Jill Key

The Pacific Bat page

Sharing knowledge across the Pacific

Previous work and workers

• Who: Anne Brooke
• Where: Guam, American Samoa
• Nature of previous work: Biologist, Guam National Wildlife Refuge; Biologist, Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, American Samoa
• 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: anne.brooke@navfacmar.navy.mil & brookeguam@yahoo.com

• Who: Jenny Cousins
• Where: Cook Islands
• Nature of previous work: Research on Pteropus tonganus in 2002 forming my MSc. dissertation.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Cousins, J.A.; Compton, S.G.A. 2005. The Tongan flying fox Pteropus tonganus: status, public attitudes and conservation in the Cook Islands ORYX 39, pp.196 - 203; DOI:10.1017/S003060530500044X
• Contact: jenny_cousins@hotmail.com & Jenny.Cousins@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

• Who: Zachary Dembo
• Where: Samoa
• Nature of previous work: Pteropus survey in Samoa over 3 weeks in 2005 as a thesis project.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Native Mammal Populations in Samoa. 2005. Hard copy available at the SPREP offices, 31 pages.
• Contact: jillk@sprep.org

• Who: Kim McConkey
• Where: Tonga.
• Nature of previous work:
  • Assessing how changes in flying fox (Pteropus tonganus) abundance influences their role in seed dispersal .
• Reports or articles available:
  • McConkey, K. R. and Drake D. R. (2007) Indirect evidence that flying foxes track food resources among islands in a Pacific archipelago. Biotropica 39(3): 436-440.
  • McConkey, K. R. and Drake, D. R. (2006) Flying foxes cease to function as seed dispersers long before they become rare. Ecology 87(2): 271-276.
  • McConkey, K.R. & Drake, D.R. (2002). Extinct pigeons and declining bat populations: are large seeds still being dispersed in the tropical Pacific? in D. Levey, W. Silva, and M. Galetti (eds.), Frugivory and Seed dispersal: Ecological, Evolutionary and Conservation Perspectives. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.
• Contact: kimmcconkey@yahoo.co.nz

• Who: Jorge Palmeirim
• Where: Fiji
• Nature of previous work: Together with a group of colleagues affiliated with the University of the South Pacific, and with funding provided by Fauna and Flora International, I carried out a study of the distribution, status, and conservation of bats in the Fiji Islands.
• Reports or articles available:
  • With over 300 islands and a total area of 18 272 km2 the Fijian territory holds much of the natural heritage of the Pacific region. Its bat fauna is of great conservation relevance because it includes one endemic species, several near endemics, and the best global populations of several threatened species. In addition, some bats play a keystone role as pollinators and seed dispersers in local forest ecosystems. In the sequence of our project we wrote a report that details the results of the survey of Fiji's bats and their conservation status. The survey encompassed a total of 30 islands from all the major island groups, but did not include Rotuma. We describe, for each species, the status in Fiji, the global relevance of the Fijian populations, and its geographic distribution. We summarize the factors affecting bats in Fiji and some conservation measures. Finally, we indicate a list of key sites for the protection of bats in Fiji. PALMEIRIM, J.M., A. CHAMPION, A. NAIKATINI, J. NIUKULA, M. TUIWAWA, M. FISHER, M. YABAKI-GOUNDER, S. THORSTEINSDÓTTIR, S. QALOVAKI, T. DUNN. 2005. Distribution, Status and Conservation of Bats in the Fiji Islands. Relatório para Fauna and Flora International. Download a complete copy of the report in PDF format (611 KB)
  • JORGE M. PALMEIRIM, ALAN CHAMPION, ALIFERETI NAIKATINI, JONE NIUKULA, MARIKA TUIWAWA, MARTIN FISHER, MERE YABAKI-GOUNDER, SO´LVEIG THORSTEINSDO´ TTIR, STANLEY QALOVAKI & THOMAS DUNN. 2007. Distribution, status and conservation of the bats of the Fiji Islands. Oryx 41(4):509-519.
• Contact: palmeirim@fc.ul.pt, Dept. Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade de Lisboa 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.

• Who: William Rainey, Elizabeth Pierson, Thomas Elmquist, Paul Cox.
• Where: Pacific islands
• Nature of previous work: The role of flying foxes (Pteropodidae) in oceanic island ecosystems of the Pacific.
• Reports or articles available:
  • Undated, but apparently a chapter for a book in press "Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution of Bats", Oxford University Press. Hard copy available at the SPREP offices.
• Contact: jillk@sprep.org

• Who: Louise Shilton
• Where: Krakatau islands, Indonesia & Queensland, Australia.
• Nature of previous work:
  • Cyclone response, landscape ecology, foraging behaviour, habitat use, population dynamics, fruit orchard issues, dietary breadth, camp size measurements and conservation management of the Spectacled Flying Fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) in Far North Queensland – CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.
  • Seed dispersal by fruit bats on the Krakatau Islands, Indonesia, and their role in the establishment of island vegetation and rainforest regeneration – formed PhD thesis, University of Leeds, UK.
• 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
• Website: http://www.tfrc.csiro.au/research/FlyingFox.html

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This page was created on 6 July 2006 by JK and updated on 23 April 2008.