Eidolon helvum (Kerr, 1792)

Decher, Jan, Hoffmann, Anke, Schaer, Juliane, N Orris, Ryan W., Kadjo, Blaise, Astrin, Jonas, Monadjem, Ara & Hutterer, Rainer, 2015, Bat diversity in the Simandou Mountain Range of Guinea, with the description of a new white-winged vespertilionid, Acta Chiropterologica 17 (2), pp. 255-282 : 259

Eidolon helvum (Kerr, 1792)

A single female of this large gregarious fruit bat species was captured on 17 March 2008 on the ridge at the end of the road to Pic de Foko (PF) high in the canopy net. During the 2002 RAP two individuals were recorded in similar habitat (W2, 1350 m). Eidolon helvum is already known from the Guinean side of Mount Nimba ( Aellen, 1963). Verschuren (1976) and Wolton et al. (1982) captured single E. helvum on the Liberian side of Nimba in September and February, respectively. Eidolon helvum has been shown to be a migrant from its prime habitat, forest belt of West Africa, to areas reaching into the Sahel belt ( Thomas, 1983). These migratory movements of E. helvum have recently been studied in more detail ( Ossa et al., 2012; Sapir et al., 2014).

Conservation status

Near Threatened. Population trend is decreasing. According to IUCN E. helvum “...is being seriously over-harvested for food and medicine, making the species close to qualifying for Vulnerable.” ( IUCN, 2015).