A Bat's End: The Christmas Island Pipistrelle and Extinction in Australia

It is the evening of 26 August 2009 on Christmas Island. The last known pipistrelle emerges from its day-time shelter. Scientists, desperate about its conservation, set up a maze of netting to try to catch it. But the bat evades the trap easily, and continues foraging. It is not recorded again that night, and not at all the next night, or ever again. The scientists search all nearby areas over the following nights. It has gone. There are no more bats. It is the silent, unobtrusive death of ...