As someone whose work deals exclusively with British bats, this book opened the door to an entirely different dimension of the bat world to me. The result of a symposium on island bats held at the 2004 annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, the book is a collection of new research surrounding this vast subject.

The introduction of the book provides a useful background of how various research surrounding tropical island biology has contributed to our understanding of evolutionary, ecological and conservational thinking. It also offers a fundamental insight into the problems facing tropical island ecosystems, both historic and recent, as well as summarising the features of island bats and other species, thus providing a practical foundation of knowledge on the subject that prepares the reader for the beefier topics of research that the book goes on to present.

Part one, discussing evolution of island bats, contains four chapters that present new research and hypotheses surrounding this subject. The section begins with a chapter from Heaney and Roberts, who explain how different methods of measuring genetic variation in Philippine fruit bats can be combined to provide a clearer picture of evolutionary history of populations of these species. The next two chapters both look at how sea barriers have affected dispersal and genetic variation in fruit bats in southern Wallacea and the Caribbean respectively, demonstrating how bat dispersal has only been possible during periods of very low sea level. In the final chapter in this section, Fleming et al. propose and test four hypotheses on dispersal by undertaking statistical analyses of data from three phyllostomid bat lineages. They relate this work back to the research presented in the first chapter, giving this section of the book a well-rounded feel.

Part two is the largest section of the book, containing seven chapters exploring the ecology of island bats. The first chapter in this section provides an excellent starting point by exploring endemism in island species and the factors that influence long-term persistence. Chapter 6 goes on to present an extensive study on the roles of pteropodid bats in re-establishing tropical forests of Krakatau, concluding that the significance of the role of bats has been previously underestimated. Interestingly, the authors also demonstrate the potential implications of this study on other oceanic islands and fragmented habitats. Willig et al. continue the theme of looking at the effects of island characteristics on bat ecology, as well as introducing the subject of hurricane-induced disturbance into the mix. Chapter 8, the only chapter focused on roosting ecology of island bats, looks at the roles of cave roosts in protection from weather events and energetic advantages, while the next three chapters go on to examine further the impacts of natural disasters on bat ecology. In a stark change of subject, and the only chapter to present a socio-biological subject matter, the last chapter in this section presents a fascinating study of the effects of flying fox consumption in Guam on neurodegenerative disease amongst the local human population.

The final section of the book contains four chapters that examine the all-too-relevant subject of conservation of island bats. The first three chapters of this section present discussions surrounding the main threats to, and new ideas for the conservation of, bats on Madagascar, the tropical Pacific islands and insular South-East Asia, and New Zealand. The penultimate chapter in particular, in which O’Donnell examines the ecology and conservation of New Zealand bats, presents some pleasingly positive ideas regarding the achievability of successful bat conservation on the island, some of which one hopes could be applicable to other islands. This section and the whole book is superbly concluded by a poignant chapter contributed by Jones et al., providing an overview of the importance, challenges and opportunities to island bats on a global scale.

This format of back-to-back research papers makes the book a challenging and sometimes taxing read. However, the chapters compliment and flow into one another in a logistically pleasing manner that is immensely helpful to the reader. The book contains full referencing throughout and a comprehensive array of tables and figures, including a colour photo gallery, that support the information provided in the individual chapters effectively. These factors, combined with the impressive collection of new research covering the vast breadth of this complex subject matter, make this book an encyclopaedic goldmine for researchers studying island bats, as well as an excellent starting point for novices to the subject, such as myself. I have no doubt that this book will prove an important protagonist for triggering new and exciting research into the diverse range of factors influencing the evolution, ecology and conservation of island bats.