You’d better duck—a giant bat species is swooping back after a near-brush with extinction.
You’d better duck—a giant bat species is swooping back after a near-brush with extinction.
The Pemba flying fox is native to Pemba Island off of Africa’s Tanzania. Twenty years ago, thanks to hunting and habitat destruction, the bat’s days seemed extremely numbered: only a handful of the bats were thought to exist, and the species was listed as critically endangered.
“Less than twenty years ago this bat looked set to disappear off the face of the planet forever,” Joy Juma of conservation group Flora and Fauna International’s East Africa Program told MSNBC. “At one time roast bat was a very common dish on Pemba. Now people value the bats for different reasons.”
Since the establishment of conservation efforts, including creating forest reserves on the island, restricting hunting for the species, and creating a market for ecotourism focused on the rare bat, the Pemba flying fox’s numbers have far surpassed conservationists’ expectations: a recent survey showed that between 22,000 and 35,000 of the giant bats now live on Pemba Island.
“Today, Pemba flying foxes are much loved by islanders,” FFI stated, “with local people helping to protect the bat through community-led ‘Pemba flying fox clubs’.” It seems safe to assume that the menus for their gatherings do not include roasted bat.