Threatened bat the Pemba flying fox makes comeback from extinction
Last updated 10/31/2008 9:16:55 AM
Threatened Pemba flying fox Credit E Bowen-Jones
A once critically endangered bat species, the ‘Pemba flying fox', has made a dramatic return from the brink of extinction, according to a new piece of research.
As recently as 1989, only a scant few individual fruit bats could be observed on the tropical island of Pemba, off Tanzania1. Its numbers have since soared to an astounding 22,000 bats in less than 20 years, the new research finds.
This remarkable recovery appears to be testament to the successful emergency intervention efforts of international conservation organisation Fauna & Flora International (FFI), working closely with their local partner, the Department of Commercial Crops, Fruits and Forestry(DCCFF).
The FFI-initiated survey demonstrates that the Pemba flying fox, a type of fruit bat that lives only on Pemba island in the Zanzibar archipelago off Tanzania, is a true conservation success story.
The species was facing imminent extinction in the 1990's when FFI first took action to save it. It is one of Africa's largest bat species, with a wingspan of 5 ½ feet - greater than the height of the average British woman.
Once considered a delicacy, these charismatic bats were hunted and eaten widely throughout the island. By the 1990s the bats looked doomed, with 95% of its forest habitat destroyed and an extremely slow reproductive rate (just one young per adult female each year).
This latest survey indicates that the Pemba flying fox population has fully recovered to at least 22,000 but possibly up to 35,600 individuals. In fact, several of the species' sleeping roosts are now home to over 1000 bats.
This amazing resurgence proves that conservation can work, even in the most dire-seeming situations, if the right actions aretaken at the right moment.
Over the past 13 years, FFI has helped to reduce the threat from hunting, set up two new forest reserves to safeguard the bat's habitat and raised awareness of the need for conservation throughout Pemba's communities.
The species has now been downgraded to ‘Vulnerable' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List for threatened species.
Today Pemba flying foxes are much loved by islanders, with nearly 100% of local people expressing support for their conservation in a recent opinion poll.
In fact, community-led "Pemba flying fox clubs", which help protect the bat through education and monitoring,have been popping up all over the island.
FFI East Africa Programme Assistant, Joy Juma said: "Less than twenty years ago this bat looked set to disappear off the face of the planet forever. Thanks to the enthusiasm of local people, FFI's ongoing conservation efforts have managed to claw this species back from the brink of extinction.
"At one time roast bat was a very common dish on Pemba. Now people value the bats for different reasons."