Australasia-Pacific Projects

Australasia/South Pacific Islands

Friends of the Fanihi: Education awareness for the Mariannas fruit bat on Rota.
Project leaders: Julia Boland, USFWS. Year: 2008
Bare backed fruit bat (Aproteles bulmerae) conservation program in Papua New Guinea
Project Leaders: Dr Debra Wight, Wildlife Conservation Society and undergraduate student Kore Tau. Years: 2006
Ecology of bats, wasps and figs on Papua New Guinea
Project leaders: Graduate student Silvia Lomascolso, Zoology Dept, University of Florida. Year: 2002
Nutrional Ecology of the Tongan Fruit bat.
Poject Leaders: Graduate student Suzanne L. Nelson, Prof Thomas H. Kunz and Dr Stephen R. Humphrey Year: 1998-2002
Pacific Island Flying Fox Conference.
Project Leaders: BCI/USFWS Year: 1990

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

APROTELES BULMERAE AND CAVE BAT CONSERVATION PROGRAM IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Project Leaders: Dr Debra Wright, Wildlife Conservation Society’s Papua New Guinea Country Program
Period: 2006.
Funding Partners: Lubee Bat Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Rufford Foundation, and the Darwin Initiative.

Fruit Bat Conservation Because flying foxes are relatively large vertebrates living in conspicuous communal roosts, they are particularly attractive as an easy source of protein to subsistence hunters. In Papua New Guinea cave entrances are partially blocked and all of the emerging bats are killed; this is a severe problem with entire populations being killed in a few days. With student support from Lubee, Kore Tau ( supervisied by Silvia Lomoscola and Debra Wright), spent a total of seven months in the rugged mountains of the Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area from March 2005 through March 2006. She counted bats in each of 14 caves and sinkholes, mist-netted them for identification and reproductive information, and measured cave parameters to see if any affect bat selection for roosting caves. She also conducted awareness with local hunters on the importance of flying foxes for their forest ecosystems. In doing this work, Kore confirmed the existence of the critically endangered Aproteles bulmerae at two sites, mist-netting eight individuals. Aproteles bulmerae was thought to exist in only one cave in the far west of PNG, until recent indications showed that it also lives in the Crater Mountain area; Kore has now confirmed this beyond doubt. She plans to continue her work with more surveys in Sandaun Province.

AMERICAN SAMOA

NUTRITIONAL ECOLOGY OF THE TONGAN FRUIT BAT (PTEROPUS TONGANUS)
Project Leaders: Graduate Researcher Suzanne L. Nelson, Thomas H. Kunz and Stephen R. Humphrey
Period: 1998-2002
Lubee graduate fellowship to University of Florida Foundation/Dept of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation.

Fruit Bat Conservation Bats are one of the only other mammals besides humans that have problems with calcium deficiency, and reproduction by female bats may be limited by their intake of calcium. Bat pups are considered “expensive” to female bats because pups nurse until they are 95% of adult skeletal size and during that time the female provides their total nutrition through extended lactation. To meet the demands of extended lactation, female bats donate their own skeletal calcium to build the skeletons of their pups. The heavy demands of raising several pups can result in female’s bones becoming less dense, similar to osteoporosis in humans, which results in an increased risk of wing-bone fractures. Wing-bone fractures and tooth loss can impede the ability to forage and may affect longevity, fitness, and overall health of the bat.

Lubee funded PhD researcher Suzanne Nelson to test the “calcium-constraint hypothesis” which proposes that reproductive females were more constrained by calcium than energy in their diet. The research utilized wild-caught Tongan fruit bats, fitting bats with radio-collars and monitoring their activities to determine if they were feeding in calcium-rich habitat or calcium-poor habitats across the island, and involved feeding trials with captive bats. Bats preferred high sugar content fruits .

PACIFIC ISLANDS

PACIFIC ISLAND FLYING FOX CONFERENCE
Project leaders: BCI/USFWS
Period: Honolulu, Hawaii on February 1-2, 1990.

Fruit Bat Conservation Representatives from 14 island nations and states, and places as distant as Sweden and Scotland, came together for an international meeting on the conservation of Pacific island flying foxes. Designed to help people from the islands secure a better future for their bats and rain forests, the Pacific Island Flying Fox Conference was hosted by Bat Conservation International, and funded by a $100,000 grant from Lubee. Through the conference, wildlife managers from the islands were able to meet with scientists and leading conservationists for discussions about problems facing Pacific island bats. For the first time, many representatives learned how important flying foxes were to their island ecology and in some cases, to their economies as well.

A proceedings of the conference is available as a PDF here