Mariana Fruit Bat
| Mariana fruit bat | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Pteropodidae |
| Genus: | Pteropus |
| Species: | P. mariannus |
| Binomial name | |
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Pteropus mariannus Desmarest, 1822 |
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| Mariana fruit bat range | |
| Synonyms | |
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Pteropus keraudren Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 |
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Pteropus keraudren Quoy & Gaimard, 1824
The Mariana fruit bat (Pteropus mariannus), also known as the Mariana flying fox, and the fanihi in Chamorro, is a megabat found only in the Northern Mariana Islands and Ulithi (an atoll in the Caroline Islands). Habitat loss has driven it to endangered status, and it is listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Poachers and food hunters, other animals, and natural causes have led to the decline.
The Mariana fruit bat is a mid-sized bat which weighs 0.6 to 1.1 lb (270 to 500 g), and has a forearm length of 5.3 to 6.1 in (13.4 to 15.6 cm). Males of the species are slightly larger in size than the females. Their abdomens are colored from black to brown, while also having gray hairs. The mantle and the neck are a brighter brown to golden brown color and the head varies from brown to black. Their ears are rounded and their eyes large, giving them the features of a canid, so many megabats are called flying foxes.
The bat is considered a culinary delicacy by Chamorros. Eating fruit bats is linked to a neurological disease called lytico-bodig disease. Paul Alan Cox from the Hawaiian National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kalaheo, and Oliver Sacks from Albert Einstein College in New York, found the bats consumed large quantities of cycad seeds, and - like some eagles, which were shown to build up levels of the pesticide DDT in fat tissue - probably accumulate the toxins to dangerous levels.
In 2001, the population was estimated to number between 300 and 400 bats. The current population numbers are unknown, but one known concentration is on Ritidian Point in Guam. In 2013, Bat Conservation International listed this species as one of the 35 species of its worldwide priority list of conservation.
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