Although preyed on by arboreal snakes and raptors, the Livingstone’s flying fox’s primary predators are humans, both for food and as a secondary result of forest destruction.
Other predators have not been documented, but large arboreal snakes and raptors make take young and adult Livingstone’s flying foxes.
Humans are the primary predators of the species, both for food and as a secondary result of forest destruction.
The species is suspected to suffer from catastrophic habitat decline caused by the cutting of trees for fuelwood and construction and by conversion of all but the steepest upland areas to agricultural use. This has resulted in extensive declines in the species’ area of occupancy, the extent of its occurrence, and the quality of its habitat. Rapid destruction of the forest habitats the bat relies on indicates these flying foxes may become extinct within 10 years.
Human pressures on native forests are expected to continue, as the growth rate of the human population remains high, with an annual increase of 2.5%.
• Image | © M Jean Marie PARIS, All Rights Reserved
• Sources | (Dewey & Long, 2007; Emanoil, Edward, Kasinec, 1994; Hutchins, Kleiman, & Geist, 2003; Malik, 2013; Sewall, Young, Trewhella, Rodríguez-Clark, & Granek, 2016)
