Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866) was one of the earliest European naturalists to live in Japan. Through most of the nineteenth century, however, until the 1860s, movement of foreigners within Japan was severely restricted, impairing Siebold's ability to observe wildlife in the countryside or collect zoological specimens. Among the Japanese mammals that Siebold was able to see, if not necessarily in the wild, and acquire examples of, was Pteropus dasymallus, the Ryukyu Flying Fox. On the basis of Siebold's early work, Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858), in 1825, first described the species scientifically. Siebold's initial observations on the fruit bat's range, however, proved to be incorrect. His notes on the species' distribution in and around Nagasaki in southern Kyushu and Tokyo in central Honshu were particularly contradictory, apparently based, at least in part, upon an initial confusion with either Pteromys petaurista (Japanese Giant Flying Squirrel) or Pteromys momonga (Japanese Dwarf Flying Squirrel).
Roost of Gray Flying Foxes (Pteropus griseus) in Indonesia and Records of a New Hunting Threat