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Post by Melanie on Feb 7, 2009 10:07:36 GMT
Urgent measures needed to save Christmas Island bat species
* Joseph Sapienza
* February 7, 2009 - 9:19AM
The Federal Minister for Environment believes the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat faces a bleak future due to a sharp decline in their numbers and says urgent measures must be put in place to save the species from possible extinction.
A draft report on survey work carried out in January this year has indicated a rapid decline in pipistrelle numbers on the island and has since called on the nation's leading threatened species experts for urgent advice on the bat.
The Christmas Island pipistrelle is a small bat - less than 5g in weight – that is only found on Christmas Island.
Its status was upgraded to critically endangered in 2006 under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Minister Peter Garrett said he raised the idea of a captive breeding program and any other appropriate conservation actions for the pipistrelle bat with experts to try and save the species.
"I have also asked the Threatened Species Scientific Committee to help establish a new expert group which will consider threats to biodiversity on Christmas Island," he said.
"They will provide advice on conservation priorities to address the causes of biodiversity decline on the island in the light of dwindling populations and a range of some other native species."
"Despite years of intensive monitoring by the Christmas Island National Park and research by independent experts, the direct causes of the pipistrelle's decline are not known," Mr Garrett said.
"Contributing factors may include habitat loss, climatic conditions, disease and introduced predators and pests."
Christmas Island National Park has been implementing the national recovery plan for the pipistrelle since 2004, including action to protect roost trees and foraging habitat, monitoring of potential predators by cameras, blood tests for possible disease, and surveys of distribution.
This work will continue while the Threatened Species Scientific Committee considers the draft report, Mr Garrett said.
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Post by Melanie on May 7, 2009 11:22:19 GMT
Christmas Island bat 'months from extinction'
Australian government accused of jeopardising fate of tiny pipistrelle
By Kathy Marks in Sydney
Australia's rarest mammal, the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat, is months away from extinction, and wildlife experts say the government is failing to take action that could save the species.
A recent audit of the pipistrelle – a minuscule bat found only on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean – concluded that fewer than 20 individuals remain, all roosting under one piece of bark in the same tree.
Experts say the only way to rescue the species is to capture the surviving bats and breed them in captivity. However, the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, claims that would entail "unacceptably high risks" to the pipistrelle, which is not much bigger than the tip of a thumb. Instead, he has set up a captive breeding trial involving a closely related micro-bat.
By the time the trial yields results, the pipistrelle will be extinct, according to Michael Pennay, president of the Australasian Bat Society. Over the past 15 years, the population has fallen by 90 per cent. "If it continues to decline at the same rate, the species will vanish altogether within months," said Mr Pennay, a zoologist.
"It could happen in one day. All it takes is for that tree to fall down – and it's a dead tree."
Australia's leading bat scientists are so concerned that they have drawn up a rescue plan and offered their services for free. A team of experts is willing to travel to Christmas Island, capture the remaining bats and establish them in enclosures at a research station. Mr Garrett has yet to respond.
Australia already has the worst mammal conservation record of any country. Of all the species lost over the past 200 years, nearly half have been Australian. They include the Tasmanian Tiger, or thylacine, which died out in the 1930s. Thanks to conservation efforts, it is half a century since the last Australian mammal, a species of wallaby, became extinct. Now, unless Mr Garrett has a change of heart, the pipistrelle looks likely to join the long list.
Bat experts accuse the government of dragging its feet. The pipistrelle has been classified as critically endangered, the highest risk category, since 2006. Covered in soft fur, the creatures weigh less than a 10p piece. Contrary to popular perception about bats, they have excellent eyesight. They also use a sonar-like system to navigate their surroundings.
Scientists have no idea why the population has decreased so catastrophically, but they theorise that disease, or introduced pests – which include black rats, yellow crazy ants, wolf snakes and giant centipedes – may be to blame. Several other species native to Christmas Island have experienced steep declines, or disappeared.
Most of Christmas Island is a national park, so habitat loss is not a factor. The island was annexed by Britain in the late 19th century; sovereignty was transferred to Australia in 1958, and nowadays about 1,500 people of Chinese, European and Malay ancestry live there.
Mr Pennay insisted that the government trial was unnecessary, since there was already plenty of evidence that micro-bats could thrive in captivity. "The highest priority now is to secure these bats from whatever is threatening them," he said. "If you leave them in the wild, they'll almost certainly go extinct."
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Post by sebbe67 on May 13, 2009 10:39:49 GMT
Some photographs   |
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Post by another specialist on May 13, 2009 18:16:48 GMT
can i ask where this photos come from?
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Post by Melanie on May 18, 2009 10:57:30 GMT
THE first Australian mammal to become extinct in 53 years is likely to die out within a year. As few as 20 of the tiny Christmas Island pipistrelle bats are left. Their rapid decline is due to an ecological meltdown on the Indian Ocean island, mostly because of invasive species. Weighing less than 5g, the bat has suffered a 99 per cent decline in numbers since 1994. It is thought introduced species including rats, feral cats, the common wolf snake and giant centipedes are preying on or disturbing them. An explosion of yellow crazy ants - also found at Kedron on Brisbane's northside in 2007 - is likely to have exacerbated the problem. The predicament has started a heated debate between scientists and the Federal Government. A spokesman for Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said yesterday the plan was to start a captive breeding program but conflicting advice had been received from experts on whether this would work and even if the pipistrelles could be safely captured. Some scientists argue that other pipistrelle bat species have been successfully held in captivity for 20 years and that the Government has not acted because it is afraid it will be blamed for the extinction. "The funny thing is that by doing nothing, the Government is ensuring they go extinct anyway," a scientist said. "It's highly likely they will last only weeks or months." An assessment of the pipistrelles by Lindy Lumsden of the Victorian Environment Department's Arthur Rylah Institute in January suggests there could be as few as 20 left. www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25496813-953,00.html |
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Post by Melanie on Sept 8, 2009 9:53:57 GMT
Australia gov't faulted for demise of Christmas Island bat Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:24 AM Print -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYDNEY, Sep. 8, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- Environmentalists said Tuesday that a endemic species of bat on Christmas Island that now appears doomed to extinction could have been saved if the Australian government, which administers the far-flung Indian Ocean territory, had acted sooner Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who had said in July he ''cannot simply stand by and wait for the inevitable extinction of this bat,'' on Monday expressed ''sadness and disappointment' that a monthlong rescue mission by Australian and New Zealand scientists had failed to capture any of the bats for a captive-breeding program. ''We knew it was a battle against the odds, as the bats have learned to avoid traps and are very difficult to catch. But a captive breeding program was our last chance of preserving this critically endangered species,'' Garrett said in a statement. He said the imminent loss of the bat, which would be Australia's first mammal extinction in over 50 years, has ''underlined the need to move to a new ecosystem-wide approach to environmental management across Australia.'' WWF-Australia Conservation Manager Gilly Llewellyn on Tuesday called it ''saddening and ironic that the government should announce the failure to locate any remaining Pipistrelle bats on Christmas Island on National Threatened Species Day.'' Suggesting the government's efforts came too late and faulting it for being ''afraid of spending money on threatened species,'' she said, ''Minister Garrett must realize that ecosystems are made up of species. As species go extinct, so inevitably will ecosystems.'' The Christmas Island Pipistrelle, a tiny, insect-eating bat which roosts in trees rather than in caves, was once abundant across the entire island, which is known for its high degree of biodiversity. But despite being recognized as a critically endangered species, the bat's population has declined catastrophically over the last decade and it is now confined to a small area at the western end of the 135-square-kilometer island. Its demise has been blamed on habitat degradation and on invasive pests such as giant centipedes, black rats, wolf snakes, feral cats and, in particular, the yellow crazy ant, which has had devastating ecological effects on the island's unique ecosystem. A population explosion of the ants has produced super colonies across the island. They attack the noctural bats while they roost in trees during the daytime, while they also kill the island's famously abundant red crabs as they walk along the forest floor. Scientists believe that the reduced number of the terrestrial crabs in recent years has boosted the population of giant centipedes, which also attack and kill bats as they roost. Despite the majority of its land being in a national park, Christmas Island has already suffered extinctions of three mammal species in recent decades and is currently suffering rapid decline of endemic species of reptiles and plants. ''From bats to birds, to crabs, and to plants, Christmas Island is home to species found nowhere else, but without intervention they will soon be lost,'' Garrett warned in June when he announced A$1.5 (US$1.28 million) program ''to begin the rescue of Christmas Island's ecosystem.'' On Monday, he called the island's conservation problems ''pervasive, chronic and increasing'' and said the government would take ''a new long-term, whole of landscape approach to ecosystem management on the island.'' The environment minister unveiled plans for a new ''aerial onslaught'' on the yellow crazy ant and said an additional A$1 million will be used to protect the island's ''keystone'' red crabs. WWF-Australia said that while it recognizes the government's intention to take a more pro-active and holistic approach to conservation, it ''should not abandon threatened species.'' ''It should conduct a review and prioritize those species most critical to ecosystem function -- the seed dispersers, plant pollinators, top predators and the ecosystem engineers that drive ecosystem processes,'' Llewellyn said. Australia already has the worst rate of mammal extinctions in the world, according to WWF-Australia. The last Australian mammal species to become extinct was the crescent nailtail wallaby, last seen in 1956. www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3462790 |
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Post by Melanie on Sept 8, 2009 15:10:20 GMT
I fear that this species will go extinct within the next months.
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Post by Melanie on Sept 19, 2009 9:28:25 GMT
I am almost in the mood to move this thread to extinct. Because even if a few specimens might have survived this species is functionally extinct. What do you think?
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Post by Peter on Sept 26, 2009 7:44:46 GMT
I think this species is doomed indeed, as they failed to capture a single specimen. With just 20 left they might have had a small change in captivity, but it is very unlikely now that it will survive, if they are not yet extinct already. However, we have had no official statement that it is extinct, only that there were about 20 left in February 2009 and they predicted that they could only survive for about six months. That would be about now. Does anyone know if a new survey will be started?
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Post by Peter on Sept 26, 2009 7:54:03 GMT
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Post by Peter on Sept 26, 2009 9:37:20 GMT
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Post by Melanie on Sept 26, 2009 12:39:31 GMT
The last survey for the Christmas Island Pipistrelle was this summer. But they were not able to locate any of the 20 pipistelles which where estimated at the beginning of this year. Here is a statement by Peter Garrett, Enviroment minister of Australia Well I think the environment minister must do everything possible to enable that protection. But in this case I’m mindful that if we are looking at how we maximise protection for each of those individual species, it is very clear and the advice from that expert group in relation to the (Christmas Island) pipistrelle was clear - that you may have a situation where no matter how much effort you apply in the short-term you still are faced with the terrible prospect of not succeeding in saving a species. And given that we have got such a range of threats and potential risks and dangers to be very focused on maximising on the effort that we have and the resources that we have means that you have to look at wider ecosystems that this species actually inhabit. I mean what is interesting out of the Christmas Island experience despite the tragedy of them not locating any pipistrelles, and I was prepared for us to try and do that, was that we actually now do have captive breeding program for (two endangered) skinks. And we’re looking at a whole of island approach which involves if you like much wider but nevertheless really critical issues like quarantine and working more closely with the local institutions on the island. www.smh.com.au/blogs/greenlines/peter-garrett-on-biodiveristy/20090921-fyhv.html |
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Post by Melanie on Sept 26, 2009 12:44:37 GMT
moved to extinct until there are news that this species is still surviving.
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sburd
Junior Member
Posts: 7
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Post by sburd on Mar 13, 2011 20:46:25 GMT
Poor bats, they were declared extinct August 27, 2009. Their extinction is not at fault by humans, Australia's collapsing ecology on Christmas Island took over the bats. Christmas Island was overrun by yellow crazy ants, wolf snakes and giant centipedes.
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Post by Peter on Mar 13, 2011 20:58:22 GMT
Sburd, those crazy ants, etc. were introduced by humans into the ecosystem. They didn't came by themselves. So any extinction caused by them is also at fault by humans. Although indirectly.  |
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Post by surroundx on May 25, 2012 8:31:00 GMT
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Post by surroundx on May 25, 2012 8:32:22 GMT
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Post by Peter on May 26, 2012 7:32:20 GMT
A very sad event again! Such confirmations are of course never nice to read/hear...
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Post by surroundx on May 27, 2012 11:50:41 GMT
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Post by surroundx on Oct 11, 2016 12:51:03 GMT
Woinarski, John C. Z., Garnett, Stephen T., Legge, Sarah M. and Lindenmayer, David B. (2016). The contribution of policy, law, management, research, and advocacy failings to the recent extinctions of three Australian vertebrate species. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12852 [ Abstract] |
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