Guam flying fox

The Guam Flying Fox ( Pteropus tokudae ) is an extinct Fledertier from the family of fruit bats ( Pteropodidae ). He was endemic to the island of Guam in the Marianas. The specific epithet honors the Japanese zoologists Mitoshi Tokuda.

Features

The dimensions are based on a single male ( holotype ), which in August 1931 and one female ( paratype ), which was collected in March 1968. The male has a forearm length of 95 mm. The female has a snout-vent length of 225 mm, a forearm length of 95 mm, a tibial length of 70 mm and an ear length of 20 mm. The weight is 151.8 g The belly and the wings are brown to dark brown with scattered white hairs. The body and sides of the neck vary from brown to light golden. The skull is grayish to yellowish brown. Throat and chin are dark brown. In addition to the adult animals, the skull of another, not yet fully grown, the male in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History exists.

Way of life

About the lifestyle of Guam flights dog is not known.

Extinction

The Guam flying fox was at the local islanders as a delicacy and has therefore been hunted intensively. The last female was collected on his roost on the Tarague cliff in March 1968. It was accompanied by a young animal that escaped the catch. An unconfirmed sighting is said to have given in June 1974. Interviews with local hunters in the 1970s provided the result that this type is extremely rare. During an expedition in 1987, no copy was detected, but only the larger Marianas flying fox ( Pteropus mariannus ). Another possible Aussterbeursache could have been the predation by the introduced in the 1950s, Brown tree snake ( Boiga irregularis ).