A. Species
Scientific name: Pteropus ornatus
Common name(s): Ornate flying fox
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Vulnerable
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- New Caledonia
Country/Region: Melanesia / New Caledonia
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: Sub-national / Sub-region / Sub-State
Name/Details of location: Northern Province of New Caledonia mainland (21.1˚ S, 164.9˚ E).
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2010
End Year: 2016
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Hunting and/or Trapping of live terrestrial and aerial animals
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed and Ceremony and ritual expression
Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Traditional/Cultural/Spiritual
Is this use legal or illegal?: Some use is legal and some is illegal
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: Between 2010 and 2016, this study counted bats at 30 roosts during the pre-parturition period. and surveyed annual hunting bags.
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Roosts size averaged 1,425 ± 2,151 individuals (N = 180 counts) and showed high among-year variations (roost-specific CV = 37–162%). However, inter-annual variation did not reflect any significant decline over the 7-yr period, although one roost possibly went extinct. Population size of the two species combined was estimated at 338,000−859,000 individuals distributed over ca. 400 roosts in the Northern Province. In opposition, annual bags derived from a food surveys indicated a harvesting rate of 5–14%. Such a level of harvesting for species with a ‘slow’ demography, combined with the occurrence of poaching and illegal trade, suggest the current species use might not be sustainable. This could be reconciled as an overall loss if the lost roost was counted as a decline.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Not determined
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Traditional bat hunting by the Kanak community takes place around Yam celebration, which is, the main social event of the Kanak community (105,000 persons in New Caledonia). This includes a traditional meal, typically including flying-foxes, and occurs each year between February and July; however, the legal bat hunting period is restricted to 8–10 days in April (weekends only) with a daily quota of five animals per hunter, and this leads to illegal poaching, as does the relatively high commercial value of flying foxes.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Not recorded
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Cruel trapping methods. Many additional bats are injured and die, uncollected, when shotguns are used in the dark.
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
The study recommends the critical need for more demographic studies (anthropogenic mortality, fecundity but also movements) to assess the long-term sustainability of flying fox harvesting rates in the light of more intensive hunting (shotguns cause substantial mortality to flying fox swarms, with many individuals killed not recovered from dense vegetation at night). New restrictions and regulations may be necessary.
Record source
Information about the record source: scientific_pub
Date of publication/issue/production: 2019-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224466
Date of record entry: 2022-11-24