10 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 65, Supplement I 
177° -180° -177° -174° -171° 
-12° 
-15° 
-18° 
Coordinate System: American Samoa 1962 UTM 
Zone 2S 
Projection: Transverse Mercator 
Datum: American Samoa 1962 
False Easting: 500,000.0000 
False Northing: 10,000,000.0000 
Central Meridian:-171.0000 
Scale Factor 0.9996 
Latitude Of Origin: 0.0000 
Units: Meter 
Figure 2. Approximate distribution of the Samoan flying fox, Pteropus samoensis. Islands where the species occurs are 
colored yellow. The islands of American Samoa are in the upper right, and include Tutuila, Ofu, Ta’u, and Swain’s Island. 
The species is also found on islands of the independent nation of Samoa (islands of Savai’i and ‘Upolo in the upper right), 
and in Fiji (islands of Vanua Levu, Taveuni, Ovalau, Viti Levu, and Nanuya in the lower left). 
radio tracked in American Samoa covered two to eight square kilometers at night and one to two 
square kilometers during the day (Brooke, 2001). They are pollinators and dispersing agents for 
native trees and are considered to be generalists in feeding strategy. On Tutuila in American Samoa, 
Banack and Grant (2003) observed regular feeding on 20 species of plants, primarily fruits and 
flowers and to a lesser extent leaves; food items were typical of primary forest habitats. They 
observed foraging in daylight hours, mostly at dawn and in late afternoon and early evening. How¬ 
ever, some nocturnal activity was also documented (Banack and Grant, 2003). Mid-day soaring 
was observed, and indications of male-female pair territoriality were noted, with suggested territo¬ 
ry sizes of about two square kilometers and roosts of pairs centered along ridge tops (Banack and 
Grant, 2003). 
On American Samoa (primarily Tutuila) and the island of Savaii in Samoa, 36 different plant 
species have been documented as sources of food, with many more species also likely to be uti¬ 
lized (Banack, 1998). These encompass a large proportion of the canopy-forming trees, including 
many endemics. Use of fruits from any one species of tree shifts by time of year. The three species 
most selected by Samoan flying foxes and Pacific flying foxes (diets of the two species could not 
always be separated) for fruits on Samoa are: Planchonella samoensis, P. garberi, and Terminalia 
catappa. However, many other species are also used, with the five most dominant being Artocar- 
pus altilus, Inocarpus fagifer, Palaquium stehlinii, Planchonella samoensis, and Syzygium ino- 
0 25 50 100 1 50 200 Miles 
0 37.5 75 150 225 300 Kilometers 
I 
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Swain's Island 
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Savaii 
Upolu 
Tutuil 
Ofu 
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Vanua Levu 
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ap Area 
Base map: Includes geospatial data 'World Countries', World Administrative Divisions', and World Ocean Backgrounds' from ESRI, Redlands, CA. | 
Data sou 
rce: Islands of occurrence mapped from ESRI data. 
