Fijian Monkey-faced Bat

Appearance

Their fur is uniformly tan and thick, sometimes hiding their ears.

Range and habitat

The Fijian monkey-faced bat is found only on the third-largest island of Fiji, Taveuni. It is only found within the montane forests of the island. It is possible that this species might also be found on the island of Vanua Levu, but these observations have not been corroborated.

It was discovered in old-growth cloud forest on Des Vœux Peak, the second highest mountain peak (1,195 m. 3,921 ft) on the island of Taveuni by William and Ruth Beckon in 1976, and is Fiji's only endemic mammal. While its cloud forest is within Taveuni Forest Reserve, this does little to protect the land, as the majority of Fiji's Forest Reserves have been converted to mahogany plantations.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet

Based on the morphology of their teeth, it is thought that they eat tough plants.

In crisis

Only six individuals of this species have ever been observed. It is listed as a critically endangered species due to habitat loss. The population size is estimated at less than 1,000 individuals.

Due to its imperiled status, it is identified by the Alliance for Zero Extinction as a species in danger of imminent extinction.

Fijian Monkey-faced Bat is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Fijian Monkey-faced Bat, Wikidata item Q430645. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.