Friday, September 16, 2011

An Extinct Species?
More than likely on Guam, at least.

The payesyes (Pacific sheath-tailed bat; emballonura semicaudata) is a smaller bat than the fanihi.

The last sighting of it on Guam was in 1972.  In 1984, they were discovered living on Aguiguan, whereas they had disappeared from the larger islands of the Commonwealth by then.

In the Malojlo area, there was an area called Liyang Payesyes (Payesyes Cave).  A Malojlo woman told me she was born there at the end of World War II where her family had taken refuge from the bombing during the American return in July 1944.

There is also a family that goes by Payesyes as it's "better-known-as."

Perhaps because they were too small to offer much in the way of eating, our mañaina didn't hunt payesyes.  They stayed in caves during the day and only came out in the dark to eat insects.  Habitat disturbance, and perhaps the brown tree snake, account for its disappearance.

South of Tinian, North of Rota
The last home of the payesyes

If the U.S. military still uses Aguiguan for bombing practice, what will become of the payesyes and other critters unique to the Marianas and otherwise?


  1. My grandmother (Elisa Taimanglo) told me that she along with many other people from Inarajan were living there during WWII. She also recalls a baby being born there. Do you happen to know the name of this woman? (ti un mind)