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The Impact of the Endangered Mauritian Flying Fox Pteropus Niger on Commercial Fruit Farms and the Efficacy of Mitigation

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The Impact of the Endangered Mauritian Flying Fox Pteropus Niger on Commercial Fruit Farms and the Efficacy of Mitigation The impact of the Endangered Mauritian flying fox Pteropus niger on commercial fruit farms and the efficacy of mitigation R YSZARD Z. OLEKSY,CHARLES L. AYADY,VIKASH T ATAYAH,CARL J ONES J ÉRÉMY S.P. FROIDEVAUX,PAUL A. RACEY and G ARETH J ONES Abstract The endemic Mauritian flying fox Pteropus niger is exclusively on fruits, leaves, nectar and pollen (Fleming & perceived to be a major fruit pest. Lobbying of the Kress, ). They typically have broad diets and eat a Government of Mauritius by fruit growers to control the fly- wide range of native, introduced and cultivated plant species ing fox population resulted in national culls in and , (Lobova et al., ; Fleming & Kress, ), and they can with a further cull scheduled for . A loss of c. , in- consume large quantities of fruits (–% of their body dividuals has been reported and the species is now categor- mass daily; Izhaki et al., ). Fruit bats are essential for ized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. However, until pollination and seed dispersal of at least species of now there were no robust data available on damage to orch- plants, of which provide economically important re- ards caused by bats. During October –February we sources and products (Fujita & Tuttle, ; Lobova et al., monitored four major lychee Litchi chinensis and one mango ; Aziz et al., ; Vincenot et al., ). However, nega- (Mangifera spp.) orchard, and also assessed individual tive attitudes towards fruit bats are widespread among the longan Dimocarpus longan trees. Bats and introduced birds general public (Vincenot et al., ; Kingston, ). Old caused major damage to fruit, with –% fruit loss (includ- World fruit bats commonly feed on cultivated fruits, and ing natural fall and losses from fungal damage) per tree. Bats therefore they are frequently shot, persecuted and even le- caused more damage to taller lychee trees (. m high) than gally culled as agricultural pests (Bumrungsri et al., ; to smaller ones, whereas bird damage was independent of Epstein et al., ). A study in Madagascar found that tree height. Bats damaged more fruit than birds in tall the Madagascan rousette Rousettus madagascarensis prefers lychee trees, although this trend was reversed in small native and commercially unimportant fruit to commercially trees. Use of nets on fruiting trees can result in as much as farmed fruit, including lychees Litchi chinensis, and main- a -fold reduction in the damage caused by bats if nets taining supplies of native fruit may be a way of limiting are applied correctly. There is still a need to monitor damage at orchards (Andrianaivoarivelo et al., ). orchards over several seasons and to test non-lethal bat The Mauritian flying fox Pteropus niger is endemic to the deterrence methods more widely. Mascarene Islands (the large islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues and nearby smaller islets in the south-west Keywords Bats, Chiroptera, flying fox, fruit damage, Indian Ocean), and in the past occurred throughout the Mauritius, orchard, Pteropus niger, tree netting archipelago. However, it is restricted now to the island of Supplementary material for this article is available at Mauritius (with records of a few individuals on Réunion https://doi.org/./S Island) as a result of habitat destruction and hunting (Cheke & Dahl, ; Cheke & Hume, ). The species plays a disproportionately large ecological role as a seed dis- Introduction perser on Mauritius, especially in dispersing the seeds of large trees that are important in forest canopies (Florens ld World fruit bats (Family Pteropodidae, Order et al., ). Chiroptera) are phytophagous and feed almost O In the population of P. niger was estimated to com- prise , individuals (Cheke & Dahl, ). Its range is RYSZARD Z. OLEKSY and CHARLES L. AYADY Ecosystem Restoration Alliance Indian Ocean, St. Pierre, Mauritius limited by habitat destruction and it is negatively affected VIKASH TATAYAH Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, Vacoas, Mauritius by tropical cyclones, which can potentially decimate popu- lations (Cheke & Dahl, ; Pierson et al., ; Grant et al., CARL JONES Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Trinity, Jersey ; Cheke & Hume, ). In common with many bat spe- JÉRÉMY S.P. FROIDEVAUX University of Bristol, Bristol, UK cies it typically produces only a single offspring each year, PAUL A. RACEY University of Exeter, Penryn, UK and occasionally twins, and therefore recovery after decline GARETH JONES (Corresponding author) School of Biological Sciences, Life is slow. The bats have been protected by law since , Sciences Building, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK. E-mail [email protected] when hunting them for food and sport shooting, once Received May . Revision requested July . a common practice, was made illegal. The population had Accepted August . First published online November . increased to an estimated , by (Republic of This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, Downloaded fromdistribution, https://www.cambridge.org/core and reproduction in any medium,. IP address: provided 170.106.35.76 the original, work on 27 is Sep properly 2021 cited. at 22:56:54, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/termsOryx, 2021, 55(1),. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605318001138 114–121 © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605318001138 The Mauritian flying fox 115 Mauritius, , ), although this estimate was based on implementation is sporadic, although it is cost-effective in disturbance counts, which are considered to be inaccurate the long term. Government subsidies are provided for and often result in double counting. In the population netting in Australia, Israel and Thailand, and small net was estimated to comprise , (± %) individuals bags are used to protect fruit on young trees in Mauritius (Kingston et al., ). Increasingly, there are claims that and Cambodia (reviewed by Aziz et al., ). During the bats are damaging commercial fruit crops. Mauritian – MUR million (USD . million) was spent fruit growers estimate that fruit bats eat , kg of lychees on the netting subsidy scheme (Agricultural Research per annum and such damage is increasing at a rate of % and Extension Unit of the Food and Agricultural Research annually. It is estimated that –% of fruit in orchards is Council, pers. comm.). As data on the damage caused to damaged and, depending on market price and levels of dep- fruit crops by bats in Mauritius were contradictory and redation, the cost of this damage can amount to MUR not always collected systematically, we aimed to assess million (USD . million) annually. Mauritius produces how much damage bats and other animals cause to lychee, . , tonnes of fruit annually from , ha, with lychees mango and longan trees, and evaluated whether netting of contributing ,–, tonnes. An estimated – trees limits the damage. tonnes of lychees, worth MUR – million (USD .–. million), are exported annually (Agricultural Research and Extension Unit of the Food and Agricultural Research Study area Council, pers. comm.; Republic of Mauritius, ). The study was conducted in Mauritius (Fig. ), an island of Fruit growers have lobbied the Mauritian Government , km , which has retained , % of its high-quality native since (D. Sarjua, in litt. to Ministry of Agriculture, vegetation cover and has lost % of its native vertebrate December , copied to Mauritian Wildlife Foundation) species (Safford, ; Cheke & Hume, ). The remain- to remove the legal protection for P. niger so that it may be ing native wildlife is strongly associated with native vegeta- controlled in orchards. In this lobbying was successful, tion, which has become invaded by exotic species. At least a cull was implemented and the official number of bats killed plant species are highly invasive and cause degradation of was ,, followed in by a further cull of , bats in native habitat. Additionally, numerous exotic animal species an attempt to limit the damage caused to lychee and mango cause destruction to native plants and their fruits or seeds, farms (Republic of Mauritius, ). The cull commenced and also spread invasive plant species (Safford, ; Cheke despite the lack of clear evidence of the damage caused by &Hume,). The work was conducted during October the Mauritian flying fox to orchard fruit (Florens, ). –February in four lychee orchards (Fig. ), As a consequence of the culling, ongoing habitat loss and Calebasses, Medine (only large, . m, trees present), vulnerability to cyclones, P. niger was recategorized from Constance, and Belle Vue Maurel (only small, , m, trees Vulnerable to Endangered on the IUCN Red List, present), and at one mango orchard in Labourdonnais. based on an estimated population decline of %in Individual longan trees were assessed in St. Pierre village and , and a projected decline of . % during – (Moka region), as there are no longer orchards of this fruit (Kingston et al., ). A further cull of % of the re- tree in Mauritius. maining population has been announced for , and bats continue to be hunted illegally, with an estimated ,– , individuals killed annually (Kingston et al., ). Methods In Mauritius the Food and Agricultural Research Council estimated that an overall mean of % of orchard lychees Fruit assessment were damaged annually by the Mauritian flying fox. Ten trees
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