Christmas Island pipistrelle

The Christmas Island pipistrelle (Alionoctula murrayi) is an extinct species of vesper bat that was found only on Christmas Island. It was the only microbat on Christmas Island and the smallest species of bat in any Australian territory. During the day it roosted under peeling tree bark or within tree hollows, and at night it foraged for insects. Females gave birth once a year to a single offspring, and they may have had lifespans of 7–15 years. Until the 1980s, it was a common bat found throughout Christmas Island. A variety of ecological disturbances affected Christmas Island in the 20th century, particularly the introduction of invasive species such as the yellow crazy ant, common wolf snake, and giant centipede, and it is presumed that a combination of factors led to the pipistrelle's decline. Its continuous and drastic decline through the 1990s and early 2000s was extensively monitored and studied. Calls to establish a captive breeding program began in 2006 but went unheeded. By January 2009, there were perhaps only 20 individuals left. When the Australian government approved a captive breeding program in July 2009, there was a just single individual that eluded capture for several weeks. It was detected for the final time on 26 August 2009, making it the first Australian mammal to become extinct in 50 years. The failure to prevent its extinction illustrated a gap between researchers gathering information and policymakers acting upon it, with authors of a 2011 article in Conservation Letters using the pipistrelle's extinction trajectory to emphasize the need to make critical conservation decisions while the opportunity is viable.

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