Flying Foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae): Threatened Animals of Key Ecological and Economic Importance

Fujita, Marty S.; Tuttle, Merlin D.

doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.1991.tb00352.x

Cited by 277 publications

(272 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Fossil evidence indicates the majority of Polynesian bird and bat species became extinct or were extirpated in the wake of human colonisation (Steadman 1993(Steadman , 1995Koopman and Steadman 1995). Indigenous Polynesian island fruit bats and birds are key pollinators and seed dispersers of native rainforest flora (Fujita and Tuttle 1991;Cox et al 1991;McConkey and Drake 2002;Meehan et al 2002;). Koopman and Steadman (1995) suggested that a loss of vertebrate frugivores in Polynesia will lead to a decline in plant diversity, and indeed fossil pollen data from Tonga indicate that diminished rainforest plant diversity accompanied the loss of native dispersers and pollinators .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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“…An indicator species is one whose presence, absence, and condition is suggestive of environmental health (Noss 1990). Since bats provide many ecosystem functions, such as pollination and seed dispersal, they are intrinsically linked to plant populations where they live (Fujita and Tuttle 1991;McConkey and Drake 2006). The predation of bats on insects may also reflect arthropod abundance and species diversity (Kalka et al 2008).…”

Section: Inventory and Monitoring Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Taxonomy and Systematics in Bat Conservation

Tsang

Cirranello

Bates

et al. 2015

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

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Taxonomy-the description, naming, and classification of organismsand systematics-the study of the evolutionary relationships of organisms-are both crucial components in conservation, providing a necessary framework for any conservation initiative. With more than 200 new bat species identified or raised from synonymy in the past decade and additional taxa described monthly, the Age of Discovery is ongoing for bats. New taxonomic and systematic discoveries clarify the status of populations, and the recognition of distinct species and lineages allows appropriate conservation strategies to be crafted, increasing the likelihood of recovery. In addition to identifying species and specimens, taxonomists care for vouchers, provide species lists for localities, and communicate taxonomic ideas to non-experts, especially through descriptions, keys, and field guides. Taxonomists can also provide conservation planning tools such as inventory data, estimates of extinction risk and extinction rate, and information for defining protected areas. Despite the importance of taxonomy, a lack of financial and institutional support impedes the training and employment of taxonomists and such factors need to be

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“…The importance of flying foxes as seed dispersers comes in large part from aspects of their physiology: flight allows them to routinely transport seeds over large distances, and their large size (sometimes with wingspans approaching 2 m) allows large fruit to be carried. However, they face strong mortality from humans, being hunted for sport and food, sold commercially as a luxury food item, and killed by farmers protecting fruit trees [49]. Some flying fox species have already been driven extinct by humans.…”

Section: Are Animal Seed Dispersers Important To Plant Conservation?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The conservation physiology of seed dispersal

Ruxton

Schaefer

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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At a time when plant species are experiencing increasing challenges from climate change, land-use change, harvesting and invasive species, dispersal has become a very important aspect of plant conservation. Seed dispersal by animals is particularly important because some animals disperse seeds to suitable sites in a directed fashion. Our review has two aims: (i) to highlight the various ways plant dispersal by animals can be affected by current anthropogenic change and (ii) to show the important role of plant and (particularly) animal physiology in shaping seed -dispersal interactions. We argue that large-bodied seed dispersers may be particularly important for plant conservation because seed dispersal of large-seeded plants is often more specialized and because large-bodied animals are targeted by human exploitation and have smaller population sizes. We further argue that more specialized seed-dispersal systems on island ecosystems might be particularly at risk from climate change both owing to small population sizes involved but also owing to the likely thermal specialization, particularly on tropical islands. More generally, the inherent vulnerability of seed-dispersal mutualisms to disruption driven by environmental change (as well as their ubiquity) demands that we continue to improve our understanding of their conservation physiology.

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Flying Foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae): Threatened Animals of Key Ecological and Economic Importance

Cited by 277 publications

References 27 publications

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

The Roles of Taxonomy and Systematics in Bat Conservation

The conservation physiology of seed dispersal

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