Discovery of new cave-roosts of the endangered Pacific sheath-tailed bat on Ovalau Island, Fiji

Abstract

The Endangered Pacific sheath-tailed bat (Emballonura semicaudata) is a small, insectivorous cave-bat that has been extirpated from much of its historic range. A rapid biodiversity assessment to Ovalau Island, Fiji was completed in January 2021 to solicit information on the species from indigenous communities and work with them to conduct searches of potential and known cave-roosts. We identified three new roosts (50–150 bats each) and confirmed that a historic cave-roost last evaluated in 2012 still had ∼100 bats. Ovalau Island is recommended as a national conservation priority for the species given there are at least four active roosts with 350–600 bats; local community members should be involved in the protection of these important cave-roosts.