Unusually warm weather behind mass bat starvation on Mid North Coast

OCTOBER is Bat Appreciation Month, with 1300-1500 species globally representing one-fifth of all mammal species on Earth.

Bats are the only mammals capable of true, sustained flight, with the Australasian Bat Society recording 81 distinct species across our continent and offshore islands.

These are broadly separated into two distinct ecological groups: insectivorous microbats and megabats, including fruit bats and flying foxes.

Locally, grey-headed flying foxes are essential to our ecosystem; however, Mid North Coast Wildlife Rescue organisation says there’s evidence of a mass starvation event.

“FAWNA and other wildlife rescue organisations are being smashed at the moment with unprecedented numbers of malnourished, starving Grey-headed Flying Foxes, particularly newborns who are being found still clinging to dead mothers,” FAWNA spokesperson Kym Kilpatrick told News Of The Area

“Many people are reporting seeing them in places they aren’t normally seen, including backyard callistemons.”

“It’s believed the cause is the unusually warm winter, which has thrown the flowering eucalypts they rely on at this time of year out of sync.”

A native species, Grey-headed Flying Foxes can fly up to 50 kilometres a night, migrating from food source to food source. That makes them the key dispersers of seeds that keep our forest ecosystems strong, including the food trees that are essential for the survival of koalas.

No other species can match their volume and range of pollination and seed dispersal; over millennia they symbiotically evolved with much of Eastern Australia’s rainforests, becoming such essential pollinators that some tree species only blossom at night.

Historically, the grey-headed flying fox numbered in the millions. However, current estimates indicate that fewer than 400,000 remain.

If you have concerns about sick or injured wildlife, FAWNA can be contacted  24/7 on 02 6581-4141.

By Rachael THORPE