Northern Islands Mayor Tobias DLC. Aldan, in an interview on Monday, said the field work of the survey that started in April was completed late July.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, he said, is still working on the report which will be out this December.
The CNMI Department of Lands and Natural Resources and the USFW surveyed the Northern Islands to identify the resources there and come up with a catalog of terrestrial species and their habitat.
The survey is part of the preparation for the military buildup in the Marianas.
Aldan said eight of his community workers assisted the survey. Three of them — Jeremy Topulei, Sandy Castro and Patrick C. Santos — helped the scientists find the colonies of fruit bats and megapodes and estimate their population in the Northern Islands, specifically Alamagan, Pagan, Asuncion and Maug.
Fruit bat is an endangered species.
All the islands have fruit bat colonies.
Castro said it appears that Pagan has the biggest population of fruit bats, about 1,200 of them.
Each colony, he said, has about 200 to 300 fruit bats.
Topulei estimated about 600 to 700 fruit bats on Asuncion where coconut crabs also thrive.
Aguingan, Topulei, said has the most megapodes — up to 100.
