Based on current deforestation rates, as many as 24% of South East Asia’s fruit bat species are predicted to have become globally extinct by the end of this century. Such losses are likely to be exacerbated by unregulated hunting of several species, most notably the flying foxes of the genera Pteropus or Acerodon, for food and traditional medicine. In combination, hunting and habitat loss have led to dramatic, but unquantified, declines in flying fox populations throughout the region. As a consequence, more than half (18/31) of the region’s flying fox species were recently Red Listed by a panel of experts for the Southeast Asia Mammal Databank, part of the Global Mammal Assessment. Of the remaining species, six were considered to be Data Deficient, and only seven species were considered sufficiently secure in their populations to merit Least Concern status.
Despite this dire situation, conservation efforts are severely hampered by the lack of regional data on flying fox distributions and populations, and of quantified evaluations of the impact of hunting. Explicit population and hunting data are only available for a few key localities (e.g. Pteropus vampyrus in Malaysia and Kalimantan). In response, two forums where held at the First International South East Asian Bat Conference (May 2007, Thailand), and more then 50 regional scientists contributed to the first step in the collation of existing information on the status of flying fox populations and the threats across the region.
Research priorities and actions identified in a third forum are to:
- Initiate and coordinate long-term monitoring of Pteropus colonies across region.
- Assess the impact of hunting and bushmeat trade
- Revise the Old World Fruit Bat Action Plan (IUCN Chiroptera Specialist Group)
