Last Glacial Maximum habitat change and its effects on the grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus Temminck 1825)

Abstract

The grey-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) is a large phytophagous bat found in coastal and near-coastal eastern Australia, from Mackay in the north to Geelong in the south (Parsons et al. 2008; Roberts et al. 2008). It is among the best known of the Australian flying foxes. Eby (1991), Parry-Jones and Augee (1991, 1992, 2001), Tidemann and Nelson (2004), McDonald-Madden et al. (2005), Parris and Hazell (2005), and Williams et al. (2006) documented aspects of P. poliocephalus ecology. Eby (1991) and Parry-Jones and Augee (2001) focused on movements between colony sites and feeding areas, while Tidemann and Nelson (2004) demonstrated long-distance movements between colonies. Breeding biology was dealt with by Martin et al. (1985), O’Brien (1993), and Fox (2006), and conservation status was summarised by Dickman and Fleming (2002).

The application of molecular tools to flying-fox phylogeny and phylogeography is in its infancy but the approach has obvious potential to solve many of the intractable problems posed to traditional methodologies by this elusive nocturnal species. Among other uses, analyses of genetic diversity can indicate whether a species has undergone changes in population size. In this paper, we place the molecular evidence for population change into a palaeoenvironmental context to gauge the antiquity of any such change and assess its implications for understanding long-term flying-fox responses to contemporary habitat fragmentation and habitat change.