Fruit bat specimens made in the Taisho to the early Showa era found in high schools of Ehime Prefecture

Abstract

Four fruit bat specimens, dating back to the Taisho to the early Showa era, were found in high schools in the Ehime Prefecture. They had been collected from the Ogasawara Islands or Ryukyu Islands, far from the Japanese mainland. These specimens, which were stored in high school as educational materials for science (natural history), are important for understanding the past distribution channel of wild animals and people’s attitudes toward living things at that time. Today, these poorly preserved specimens are no longer needed at schools and are likely to be discarded in the near future. Because some of the specimens collected from the late Meiji to the early Showa era have special academic value, urgent systematic collection of the specimens by museums or researchers is needed.