Scientists revealed new details and more comprehensive information about the least-studied bat species called "flying fox."
The "flying fox" or the Mortlock Island's flying fox is a huge fruit-eating bat. The only evidence that proves its existence was a single specimen kept and preserved in a jar of alcohol since 1870. It was collected by British biologist Oldfield Thomas in the Mortlock Islands and placed at the Natural History Museum in London.
Mortlock Islands is a collection of low-lying atolls in the Federated States of Micronesia in the west-central Pacific Ocean.
Don Buden, lead author of the study and a biologist in the College of Micronesia, brought out more data and notes about the "forgotten" species of bat.
Kristofer Helgen, of the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the study, said in a press release, "Very little is known about many of the mammals that live on remote Pacific islands, including this beautiful flying fox. This study gives us our first close look at a remarkable bat."
He added that this study just came in now due to the rising ocean waters and climate change that affected the low-lying islands where the bats inhabit.
Buden said they found a report about flying foxes in 1936 written by F.H. Kittlitz. The report scientifically named the bats Pteropus pelagicus. It simply means, that "the species was named long before Thomas's description in 1882," said Buden.
To give credit to Kittlitz, Buden then decided to seek to rename the bat Pteropus pelagicus.
"New fieldwork on the Mortlock Islands revealed more than name changes. The article describes the first study of the behavior, diet and conservation status of this flying fox, finding that the Mortlock Islands support a small population of 900 to 1,200 bats scattered across a land surface of only 4.6 square miles. Legal rules have brought better protection to the species, which was once heavily hunted and exported for food."
This research study was published in the latest edition of the animal science journal Zookeys.
