A New Eastern Limit of the Pacific Flying Fox, Pteropus tonganus (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae), in Prehistoric Polynesia: A Case of Possible Human Transport and Extirpation

Abstract

Five bones, representing one adult of the Pacific Flying Fox, Pteropus tonganus, were recovered from an archaeological site on Rurutu (151 21 0 W, 22 27 0 S), Austral Islands, French Polynesia, making this the most eastern extension of the species. For the first time, flying fox bones from cultural deposits were directly dated by accelerator mass spectrometry, yielding an age of death between A.D. 1064 and 1155. Their stratigraphic position in an Archaic period archaeological site and the absence of bones in the late prehistoric to historic layers point to extirpation of the species. No flying fox bones were found in prehuman deposits and human transport of the species cannot be ruled out.

Prehistoric Birds and Bats from the Atiahara Site, Tubuai, Austral Islands, East Polynesia

“…This supports the identification by Weisler et al (2006) of an edentulous dentary from the adjacent island of Rurutu as P. tonganus. This is important because the edentulous mandible described by Weisler et al could possibly have been another similar-sized species such as P. samoensis.…”

“…During the Archaic period this species was extirpated on neighboring Rurutu (Weisler et al 2006, Bollt 2007, 2008, as well as on islands in the southern Cooks (Allen 1992, Walter 1998; it still exists on two islands in the latter group (Mangaia and Rarotonga). Finding this species on Rurutu has extended its eastern limit in the Pacific by hundreds of kilometers.…”

“…Finding this species on Rurutu has extended its eastern limit in the Pacific by hundreds of kilometers. There is a strong possibility that humans transported it eastward (Weisler et al 2006); alternatively, Rurutu and the Australs may have been part of the natural range of P. tonganus. If Pteropus is lacking from levels before human presence on Tubuai, then the hypothesis of human transport would be corroborated.…”

Pacific Flying Foxes (Mammalia: Chiroptera): Two New Species of Pteropus from Samoa, Probably Extinct

“…Documented prehistoric vertebrate extinctions in the Pacific primarily concern birds, lizards, and land crocodiles; relatively few examples concerning mammals are known (Flannery, 1995). Mammalian examples of Holocene extinction events documented with recourse to insular subfossil records (each extinction possibly dating to either prehistoric times or to recent centuries) thus far include rodent extinctions in the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands (Flannery and Wickler, 1990;Flannery and White, 1991), bat extinctions in Hawaii and on Lord Howe Island (Ziegler, 2002;McKean, 1973), insular extirpations of bats in Tonga and the Cook Islands (Hill, 1979;Wodzicki and Felten, 1981;Tiraa, 1992;Flannery, 1995;Koopman and Steadman, 1995;Weisler et al, 2006), and insular extirpations of marsupials and rodents anthropogenically transported to islands in Northern Melanesia and West Polynesia (Flannery et al, 1988;White et al, 2000). Closer study of zooarcheological material already excavated from various Pacific islands will probably document additional examples of mammalian extinction and insular extirpation in the broader region, particularly for bats (see Steadman, 2006b: 68;Steadman, in litt.…”

Prehistoric Birds from Rurutu, Austral Islands, East Polynesia

“…We note as well that a mandible and four other bone fragments of the flying fox (Pteropus tonganus) were identified from the EEP deposit at Peva, marking a new eastern limit for this species and for all pteropodid bats (Weisler et al 2006). In East Polynesia, P. tonganus still exists only on Rarotonga and Mangaia in the Cook Islands (Hill 1979) but has been found in archaeological sites on Ma'uke (Walter 1998:79) and Aitutaki (Steadman 1991).…”