Aproteles bulmerae Menzies 1977
Creators: name: Don E. Wilson
name: Russell A. Mittermeier
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Chiroptera
Pteropodidae
Aproteles
Aproteles bulmerae

description: 81.
Bulmer’s Fruit Bat
Aproteles bulmerae
French: Roussette de Bulmer / German: Bulmer-Flughund / Spanish: Aprotelo de Bulmer
Taxonomy. Aproteles bulmerae Menzies, 1977,
2 km south-east of Chuave Government Station, 1530 m, Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea.
Aproteles bulmerae was first discovered as fossils in 9000-12,000-year-old deposits, and it was subsequently found alive at three othersites. Monotypic.
Distribution. C Papua New Guinea Mts (four localities in Western and Eastern Highlands provinces).
Descriptive notes. Head-body 248 mm,tail 30-32 mm, ear 37 mm, hindfoot 31 mm, forearm 165; weight 600 g. Head is robust; muzzle is long and stout; nostrils are large, shortly tubular, smooth, and diverging; and lips are papillose. Eyes are moderately large; irises are brown. Ears are long and narrow and attenuated at tips. Head has no glandular areas; pelage is dark brown and short; pelage on nape and anterior dorsum is lighter brown and silky; posterior mantle is whitish, with dense brown margin right below scapular area where furry dorsum is interrupted by naked patagia, but rump is densely covered with brown hair; tail is short; uropatagium is reduced in center and more ample on sides of legs; calcar is relatively long; and hindfeet are large. Ventral side is densely covered entirely in fine brown hair. Wing membranes are thick and blackish, originate on spine where left and right wings meet giving impression of bare back, and inserted on second toes; forearm and tibia are naked; index claw is present; and all claws in hand and feet are brown (paler even whitish in young). Skull is large, with slight basicranial deflection; premaxillae are thin and arcuate, lacking any sign of alveoli; rostrum is long and relatively thin and continues on flat forehead; alveolar line is slightly arched; zygomatic root is above upper alveolar line; zygoma is relatively thick and strongly arched from its anterior root; orbit is moderately large and oriented slightly forward; and braincase is long and relatively low, with occiput directed somewhat ventrally. Dorsally, point of nasals is flared laterally; rostrum is conical; paranasal recesses are moderately inflated, barely reaching large postorbital foramen; postorbital process is strong and posteriorly directed; postorbital constriction is very obvious; temporal lines are joined anteriorly in sharp sagittal crest; and braincase is oval, ending posteriorly in obvious nuchalcrest. Ventrally, palate is flat; tooth rows diverge posteriorly; post-dental palate is relatively short, converging posteriorly; and ear bones very small. There are 14 palatal ridges; first five are arched, undivided, and smooth; and the rest are divided medially, becoming strongly denticulate caudally. Dental formulais 10/0, C 1/1, P 2/3, M 2/3 (x2) = 24—lowest tooth count of all species of Pteropodidae. Dentition is generally weak; dental pieces lack enamel and appear tinged with orange; main cusps are round; and there are no additional cusps, cingula, or ledges. Upper dentition has permanent incisors (single pair of tiny deciduous incisors present); canines are long and slender and slanted forward; P' is absent; posterior cheekteeth have single labial cusp, decreasing in height caudally, and main cusps and occlusal outline are broadly rounded; and M? is small and more triangular. Lower dentition has no incisors; small low C, is close medially; P| is simple, rounded cone; posterior cheekteeth are as tall as canines and decrease in height posteriorly, with rounded cusps and occlusal outline approaching circular; and M,is peg-like.
Habitat. Montane forests in rugged limestone karst, specifically the Central Range lowland, hill, and mossy montane rainforests, at elevations of 500-2400 m. Bulmer’s Fruit Bats roost in large caves and “dolines” (sinkholes).
Food and Feeding. Bulmer’s Fruit Bat is frugivorous. Relatively weak dentition suggests consumption of soft fruit; it has been observed eating caulicarpous figs (Ficus spp., Moraceae).
Breeding. Bulmer’s Fruit Bat is probably seasonally monoestrous, with births recorded in April. Females carry their single young for a few weeks when they forage. Females achieve adult size by their second year and apparently start breeding during their third year oflife.
Activity patterns. Bulmer’s Fruit Bats roost in large caves and leave roosts at 18:00 19:00 h; when disturbed, they delay emergence from roosts. They emerge and start circling the roost for 5-10 minutes, emitting a birdlike call, before leaving to unknown feeding areas; they return to roosts minutes before 06:00 h.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Bulmer’s Fruit Bat is highly gregarious, with a colony (today collapsed) of thousands of bats on record: the Luplupwintem colony is located in a large doline with a 300-m vertical shaft excavated in a limestone plateau (locally called “Fininterr”) near Hindenburg Wall that rises 400 m above the level of a rich montane forest. The large cavern at the base of shaft is the roost of Bulmer’s Fruit Bats. Some estimates indicate that they fly more than 30 km each night to find fruiting trees. Wingbeats produce a “pok-pok” sound like that of the Moluccan Naked-backed Fruit Bat (Dobsonia moluccensis). It is known to roost with Dobsonia bats in some localities.
Status and Conservation. Classified as Critically Endangered on The IUCN Red Lust. Bulmer’s Fruit Bat is one of the rarest bats in the World. It is considered a Pleistocene holdover, and populations have been decreasing ever since. The Papua New Guinea highlands might representits last retreat. Heavy human hunting is the main cause of its decline, and it is now on the brink of extinction. Extant individuals are known from only three localities, all in almost inaccessible limestone areas surrounded by pristine montane forests. It is highly vulnerable to hunting due to its dependence on caves and its gregariousness. Introduction of shotguns probably led to the collapse of the main colony in Luplupwintem Cave that was protected by local tribesmen for generations and still numbered in the thousands in the early 1970s. The colony collapsed when shotgun hunters, equipped to be able to descend to the cave, raided the colonykilling thousands of bats in 1975-1977. Bulmer’s Fruit Bat is recorded from a few, widely separate localities (one is a fossil site), some of which are in Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area, where there is local community awareness about conservation; however, this area is not effectively protected due to local conflicts. At a wider scale, Bulmer’s Fruit Bat is not distinguished from the Moluccan Naked-backed Fruit Bat by local people, and thus there is considerable difficulty in establishing a conservation program. The single known roost with living Bulmer’s Fruit Bats might have less than 200 individuals. It is possible that new colonies are yet to be discovered in highlands of Papua New Guinea and Western New Guinea, given that extensive suitable habitat remains available with relatively low human population pressure.
Bibliography. Aplin et al. (2016), Bonaccorso (1998), Flannery (1995b), Flannery & Seri (1993), Hyndman & Menzies (1980), Menzies (1977), Wright et al. (1995).
description: Published as part of Don E. Wilson & Russell A. Mittermeier, 2019, Pteropodidae, pp. 16-162 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 9 Bats, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 107-108, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6448815