Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
THE CHRISTMAS ISLAND PIPISTRELLE
The Christmas Island pipistrelle declined dramatically from 1990. It was once commonly seen throughout the island including in the settlement.
A reassessment of the number of individuals remaining in January 2009 suggested there may have been as few as 20 individuals left. The only known communal roost contained only four individuals. Three years before, there had been 54 individuals in this colony and there were several other known, similar-sized colonies.
Monitoring in early 2009 showed that some bats survived in the wild, prompting the Australian government to announce on 1 July 2009, that it would attempt to rescue the bat by bringing the last remaining individuals into captivity, with assistance of volunteer bat researchers from the Australasian Bat Society.
In early August 2009 Australian Government gave permission to capture the bats to establish a captive breeding program. However, after four weeks of surveying located only a single bat through its echolocation. Researchers were unable to catch it and the last echolocation call of this bat was recorded on 26 August 2009, when it went silent.
On 8 September 2009, the Australian Government announced that attempts to capture the bats had failed. No Christmas Island pipistrelles have been seen or heard since, and it is believed the species is now extinct. It is believed to be the first mammal extinction in Australia in 50 years.
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