Okinawa flying fox

Okinawa flying fox
Conservation status
Data Deficient  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Pteropodidae
Genus:	Pteropus
Species:	P. loochoensis
Binomial name
Pteropus loochoensis Gray, 1870
Okinawa flying fox range
Synonyms
P. mariannus loochoensis

The Okinawa flying fox (Pteropus loochoensis) is a species of megabat in the Pteropus genus.^[1] It is endemic to possibly Japan. It was previously listed as extinct by the IUCN, but because the two known specimens are taxonomically uncertain and of unknown provenance, it was changed to 'Data Deficient'.^[1] Some place this animal into synonymy under Pteropus mariannus.^[2][3] Others treat the Okinawa flying fox as a subspecies of the latter, while some give it full species status. Two specimens are in the British Natural History Museum, and the whereabouts of the third is unknown. Two of the specimens are believed to have come from Southeast Asia, so the true distribution of the Okinawa flying fox is unknown.^[1][4]

References

1. Abe, H. & Ishii, N. 2006. Pteropus loochoensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 30 July 2007.
2. Koopman, K.F. 1993. Order Chiroptera. In: D.E. Wilson and D.M. Reeder (eds) Mammal species of the World, a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 2nd edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C..
3. MacPhee, R.D.E. and Flemming, C. 1999. Requiem Æternam. The last five hundred years of mammalian species extinctions. In: R.D.E. MacPhee (ed.) Extinctions in Near Time, pp.333-371. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
4. Simmons, N.B. 2005. Order Chiroptera. In: D.E. Wilson and D.M. Reeder (eds) Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Third edition, vol 1, pp. 312-529. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.