SAVE THE MARIANA FRUIT BAT
How Would the Environment Suffer!?
A World Without A Pollinator is a World Without Plants:
Since the threatened fruit bats are keystone pollinators, the entire system of pollination would fall apart completely on the islands if the bats were to go extinct (Winter, 2007). Without pollination, plants can never bear fruit, which in turn means they can’t reproduce. If an entire population of keystone pollinators was brutally wiped out, what would that do to the biodiversity of the islands? The answer is grim. Even though there are other pollinators on the islands, killing an entire species of them would have to take a great toll on the amount of plants living in the ecosystem. Multiple plants would rapidly fall in population, which would be an unsustainable effect on the balance of the environment. Obviously, pollination is an important ecological value that the ecosystem would struggle without. The plants depend on the Mariana Fruit Bat to pollinate them, just like the poor bats depended on us to help keep them alive. We have thus far failed to preserve these precious bats, and time is running out. We need to change our ways to help save the struggling bats, which in turn will save many species of plants and preserve the balance of their ecosystem in order.
A Drastically Different Forest:
In addition to pollination, Mariana Fruit Bats greatly affect their environment through their seed dispersal. Because they fertilize and drop seeds all over the islands through their guano while flying, these bats are keystone seed dispersers. If the fanihi were to go extinct, there would be multiple damaging repercussions involving how they disperse seeds. For one, the lack of seed dispersal would greatly decrease the amount of forest regeneration needed to recover from deforestation that has wracked the world (Winter, 2007). If these vital bats go down, the hope of new forests go down with them. Additionally, the guano the bats release acts as a fertilizer for the seeds it drops with it (Draft, 2009). Without this fertilization, the forests of the islands would undoubtedly be drier, with less water, more weeds, and a smaller range of biodiversity. This is even more of a serious issue because some native plants simply won’t grow if they haven’t been eaten and passed through a Mariana Fruit Bat. (Brown, 2011). That means that some species of trees would completely die out, leaving the balance of the food web and the ecosystem completely off kilter. Without this ecological value this special bat provides, the islands would simply be a different, more dismal place.
The Right to Life:
A humane person would argue that these beautiful creatures need to be saved simply because they have a right to be alive and survive as a species. This existence value (or intrinsic value) states that every being has an equal right to life. Anyone with a sound moral compass can comprehend the idea that one animal is just as important and worthy as another. If pure morals alone isn’t enough to justify keeping this unique bat alive and healthy, there are of course multiple other values. There are it’s obvious ecological values, like seed dispersal and pollination. Fanihi keep its ecosystem in balance and prevent it from falling apart. It also has use value, as natives have eaten fanihi as food for centuries (Endangered Species of the Pacific Islands, 2015). If these creatures were sustainably protected, there could possibly be a limited amount of them available as food to honor culture and tradition. Mariana Fruit Bats are also beautiful, which means they have aesthetic value. These adorable bats are worth saving, even if it’s just so people can admire their beauty in their natural surroundings. They also have bequest value, which argues that the species should be preserved for future generations to live with and learn from. All past and present generations have enjoyed a life that was benefitted by fanihi, and it is in no way our decision to allow future generations to go without this pleasure. It all simply comes down to the fact that these amazing bats are precious lives that deserve to be helped and cherished.
An Ecosystem Forever Changed:
Mariana Fruit Bats fill a niche within their ecosystems on Guam and the Marianas Islands. They have important relationships with the trees they roost in, the plants they feed on, the trees they grow, and the flowers and fruit they pollinate. But their special niche has been affected by disturbances to their ecosystem and to their species themselves. Habitat fragmentation from military base construction (Mariana, 2012) and loss of native species from agriculture (Draft, 2009) have resulted in a strained ecosystem. Additionally, fanihi specifically have had to withstand the staggering blows of the non-native brown tree snake and people hunting them unsustainably for food (Endangered Species in the Pacific Islands, 2015). These bats are sensitive to change like this, meaning that though they try their best, it is extremely difficult for them to recover from the effects of these predators. If Mariana Fruit Bats were to succumb to their weaknesses and go extinct because of human’s malpractice, they would leave behind an ecosystem with a niche not filled. A species cannot die out of an ecosystem without having a ripple effect across the entire balance of the environment. The food web would be changed forever, the trophic levels would be thrown off kilter, and the physical state of the land couldn’t ever be the same. This just goes to show how extremely important this little bat truly is.
