Samoa flying fox a luxury food item, but a stop was put to that trade when it was listed in Appendix I of CITES in 1990. This made it illegal to export it, and hunting since then has been on a smaller scale and only for domestic use. It is present in some national parks and other protected areas which gives it some measure of protection. The Samoan word for the flying fox fruit bat, "pe'a", is also the name of the traditional Samoan male tattoo. In Samoan and Polynesian mythologies, stories, myths, proverbs, and legends are associated with this winged creature. One
Black flying fox roosts with the grey-headed flying fox ("Pteropus poliocephalus"), the spectacled flying fox ("P. conspicillatus"), and/or the little red flying fox ("P. scapulatus"). They roost in mangroves, paperbark swamps, patches of rainforest and bamboo forests, and very rarely in caves or underneath overhangs. Black flying foxes breed once a year. A single young is born and carried by its mother for the first month of life, after which it is left behind in the roost when the mother is out foraging at night. Black flying foxes eat pollen and nectar from native eucalyptus, lilypillies, paperbark, and turpentine trees. When native foods