Bats Campaign – Save our Grey-headed Flying foxes

Ecological Facts:

Scientifically, Grey-headed flying foxes (megabats) are known as a `keystone` species. This is because one hundred species of trees are variously dependent on the pollination and seed dispersal activities of the bats for reproduction and genetic health. The bats live in tree-colonies (not caves) in coastal areas from Southern Queensland to Geelong. Each night they leave their colony and forage for food – the nectar, pollen and fruit of native tree species. They `commute` all year from camp to camp wherever there are fruiting and flowering native trees. The bats regenerate the forests and the forests feed the bats. Many other plant and animal species need the bats to do their work properly.  Grey-headed flying foxes are in great decline.

Flying Fox Conservation at a Glance:

• First fleet arrives in Australia in 1788 and observes large flying fox colony in Sydney Cove
• Grey-headed flying fox population is around thirty million bats in hundreds of colony camps. A colony might contain 500,000 animals 
• By 1920 the bats have declined by fifty percent due to land-clearing and killing
• By the late 1990’s the national population has reduced to 300,000 bats – one percent of original numbers. Shooting and electrocution by commercial fruit growers and land clearing by developers and farmers are the main causes of the bats decline
• The Grey-headed flying fox is listed under the Commonwealth, Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 but NSW and Queensland continue to issue Damage Mitigation Permits allowing fruit growers to shoot bats. Moreover, illegal shooting and electrocution using large `kill grids` continue. Bat numbers continue to fall.

Figure 5 Grey-headed flying fox having a scratch and blond mum & pup - by Vivien Jones

The decline of the Grey-headed flying fox species is not only morally abhorrent it is highly imprudent.  Each colony `out-cross` pollinates millions of trees a year as they forage from their camps at night, and commute up and down the coast from Southern Queensland to Melbourne and beyond. They are superb vectors of genetic material and promote forest regeneration wherever they go. Sadly, global warming will likely impact heavily on flying foxes in the form of loss of habitat through the increased occurrence of drought and chaotic, extreme, weather events. These disturbed weather conditions will also increase pressure on commercial fruit growers and compound the already problematic relationship they sometimes have with Australia’s flying foxes.

What you can do to help:

Write to:  

• Federal Minister for Environment and Water Resources,
  The Hon.  Malcolm Turnbull, GPO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601
• NSW Minister for Environment, the Hon. Robert Debus MP, PO Box 1967, Hurstville, NSW, 2220
• Queensland Minster for Environment, The Hon. Lindy Nelson-Carr MP, PO Box 15155 City East, Queensland 4002
• Victorian Minister for Environment, The Hon. Gavin Jennings, PO Box 500, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002

Ask the above to:

• Total protection of the species – a ban on all lethal action against flying foxes
• Protect Grey-headed flying fox colony sites from encroachment by `development` 
•  Regard the Grey-headed flying fox as a `Heritage significant` species because of its key role in maintaining biodiversity and remnant forest health
• End `Damage Mitigation` schemes that allows fruit growers to shoot flying foxes
• Comprehensive financial assistance to fruit growers to net orchards visited by flying foxes (e.g. no-interest loans & subsidies)
• Consider Climate Change a `threatening process` to be taken into account when planning flying fox conservation measures (i.e. increased extreme weather, drought/habitat loss and `heat events` leading to increased deaths)
• The active enforcement of the law in relation to the protection of flying foxes, their habitat and camp sites

What you can personally do to help flying foxes:

• Plant native trees - Spotted Gums, Red Iron Barks, Figs & Banksias
• Never use nylon netting to protect backyard fruit trees
• Encourage your local Council to plant native trees & prohibit netting
• Educate others about the environmental importance of flying foxes
• Inform the police about illegal actions against flying foxes
• Support wildlife groups & organisations

Bat Facts Global

Bats belong to the Order Chiroptera meaning " hand wing" .
These are divided into two suborders – microbats (small insect eating) and megabats/flying foxes (large, nectar and fruit eating)

Microbats Evolved about 55 million years ago
They play a critical role in insect control

Megabats (flying foxes) evolved 38 million years ago
They play a critical role in forest regeneration & health

Bats are the second most numerous species of mammal with 930 species. They are the only flying mammals. 

Conservation

Microbats need their `roost` and maternity sites undisturbed. Caves, old mines and dead trees are common sites. Mosquito borne diseases and agricultural pests increase when microbat numbers decline

Flying foxes are under pressure globally due to the destruction of their habitat and killing by human beings. They have a low rate of reproduction. Several species have become extinct. Global warming will also impact on flying foxes with an increase in extreme weather events and competition for resources with human beings. Forest health and animal species suffer when flying fox numbers decline

Bats in Australia

How many bat species does Australia have?
68 species of microbat & seven species of flying fox (megabat)

Where are they found?
Microbats are found in all areas including all cities
Conservation - Some species under pressure from forest clearing & possibly climate change

Flying foxes are found in many rural areas including the capital cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Darwin
Conservation - All flying foxes are under pressure from land clearing, urban development, loss of roost sites and shooting. Flying foxes starve when winter food sources are removed (i.e. trees that flower and fruit in winter), are shot in orchards, electrocuted on powerlines or become entangled in netting or barbed wire

Disease
All animals (including humans) carry organisms that may cause disease. Bats are clean healthy animals.
Very few bats carry ABL – Australian Bat Lyssavirus. One person in 100 years has died from Lyssavirus transmitted from a flying fox. Lyssavirus must be transmitted by a bite – it cannot be caught from urine, smell, faeces (poo) or walking near a flying fox colony.  For persons bitten or scratched by a bat an effective post-exposure vaccine is available. Untrained persons should not handle any wildlife. 

If you find an injured bat in Melbourne call:
Wildlife Victoria: 0500 540 000
Emergency Help for Wildlife: 0417 380 687
Wildlife Rescue and Information Network:  0419 356 433

Melbourne’s Bats

Figure 6 Olivia cared for by Bev Brown's Shelter Melbourne
Olivia` two week old grey-headed flying fox  found in a gutter in Sth Yarra Melbourne – probably dropped by mum during fireworks
(the dummy is psychologically necessary because baby ffs hold on to mum’s nipple)

Bats in the City? `Gentle friends – essential allies`
Melbourne has seven species of microbats (small bat). They are thumb size, eat insects, uses echolocation (sonar) sleep in tree hollows, under bark and in tunnels. They are very numerous but not easy to see. The White-striped freetail makes an audible sound `tick tick tick` like two 20c pieces being hit together. Sometimes these bats go inside houses. Simply leave a door or window open and the bat will leave. They will not attack humans but may try to defend themselves if treated aggressively. Cheap bat detectors are readily available on the web.
NB . Everything Hollywood has said about bats is false – they don’t get tangled in hair; see quite well, don’t suck blood (one bat in Sth America laps blood, their anti-coagulation saliva is being studied by scientists for treatment of stroke patients). They do eat lots of spiders, mosquitos and other bugs and agricultural pests.

Flying Foxes in Melbourne?
Melbourne has only one species of megabat (big bat), the Grey-headed flying fox. Like all flying foxes it is vegetarian eating nectar, pollen and fruit from native and exotic (non-native trees), does not have echolocation, uses its eyes and ears like humans. It has night vision as good as a cat. The bats can be seen each evening just after sunset flying across Melbourne to its various parks, gardens and backyard trees.

Where?
Melbourne’s colony can be found alongside the Yarra River at Yarra Bend Park in Kew at Melway Map 2D K6

Are they safe to be near?
Yes, they will not approach you, or seek food or land on you. Young bats learning to fly can land in odd places - very rarely a bat (like young birds) learning to fly will lose height and land at your feet. It may try to climb up a leg in order to gain height for another take-off. Do not shake the animal! It is not  `attacking`. It will grab onto a tree or bush if it can or take flight from you.

Flying foxes will observe you closely as they are very intelligent - they appear to take a special interest in shiny earrings or headwear. Take binoculars for great close up views and do not go beneath the trees, make loud noises, or sudden movements as this frightens the animals.  And please, no flash photography during the evening flyout! (Half hour after sunset) Flashes frighten them and they need their night vision to avoid crashing (no sonar remember!) into each other and trees etc.

Are Grey-headed flying foxes indigenous to Victoria?
Yes, they have been recorded in Victorian since the 1880’s and have a two million year East Coast fossil record. A permanent camp has existed in Melbourne since the late 1980’s. Grey-headed and Black flying foxes are extending their permanent range southwards. This is probably in response to global warming and decreased habitat and foraging opportunities along their `traditional` range.

How Many Bats are in the colony?
The colony numbers reduce to around 5000 animals over winter when food resources in Melbourne are scarce and increase to around 30,000 over summer when large scale flowerings occur across Melbourne. The city’s flowering gums and fruiting fig trees form and important food source for the colony – Victoria’s only breeding colony of Grey-headed flying foxes. In May 2007 the colony averaged around 3000 bats the lowest level for eight years. The colony averages beteen 20,000- 30,000 bats over summer.  

But aren’t there too many bats for the site at Yarra Bend?
The colony size is normal by modern standards and small by traditional standards. The habitat is 26 hectares of hardwood eucalypts, species with which the bats have a two million year relationship. All animals have an impact on their environment including human beings – look at trees well outside the colony site around Melbourne, many show signs of defoliation and stress and yet have no flying foxes sleeping in them. Any localised effect on individual trees at Yarra Bend Park is more than offset by the enormous benefits of flying foxes deliver to the urban and rural natural environment. Yarra Bend’s colony creates and services millions of trees each year.

But without predators won’t the flying foxes `breed up` to unsustainable levels?
No, predators play little role in flying fox numbers. The bats have a low rate of reproduction with females producing one pup per year. They commute between Melbourne and Queensland each year and so the population of the colony changes throughout the year. Many bats die from barbed wire and netting entanglement, starvation, shooting and powerlines electrocution. Their population continues to decline.

If they visit my backyard tree will they stay for good?
No, all Melbourne’s flying foxes must return to the colony during the day and will only visit your tree at night while it is in fruit or flower – a couple of weeks. Please share your fruit with them - they need to eat too. By sharing your fruit you are performing valuable urban conservation work.

Males, females, mating and pups
Females give birth (generally) between Sept and November.  The newborn pups clings onto a nipple for about three weeks including when the mother goes out at night to look for food. At around 3-4 weeks old they become too heavy to carry out at night and must be crèched with other pups in special crèche trees in the colony. They can be identified by their high pitched `trilling` sound. Pups must learn to fly, they begin to make short trips out of the colony at three months and are independent at five months. Juvenile `teenage` bats hang around together in tree in usually seperate male and female groups where they socialise and play fight. The groups gender-mix as they get older. Adults break them up if the quarrelling gets serious. Older males shepherd young bats out when they are young but lose interest when the adult females become sexually receptive again. The colony is noisy in March-April when males who have a musty odour from a shoulder scent gland, mark territory and display their assets. They vocalise loudly and try to attract a harem of females. Males may be successful  but fidelity is not a feature of flying fox reproductive ecology and females may swap or visit other `harems`. Females tend to hang together when pregnant and may form separate semi-detached groups. Mating still occurs but males often receive a cuffing and rebuff when making advances. Females appear to take in interest in each others young and will inspect and sniff other mum's newborns and pups.

Is the government helping to maintain the Yarra Bend flying fox colony?
Yes, Parks Victoria manages Yarra Bend Park and Victoria’s Department of Sustainability and Environment monitors the colony and is engaged in planting native trees, restoring wetlands, removing tonnes of noxious weeds and improving the amenity of the site with fresh paths, educational signage and a lookout – see www.dse.vic.gov.au  look under flora and fauna, then flying foxes.

What if I see people disturbing the bats?
Call the police 000 and the Yarra Bend Park Ranger on 0417 5164 92  The Bellbird Melway Map Reference is Map 2D K6 and Golfcourse 2D F6  

How can I become more involved with Melbourne’s colony?   
Join VAFA and/or Join the Friends of Bats group - a member group of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria [FNCV] at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Friends_of_Bats_Victoria  Please note: VAFA and FNCV are entirely separate organisations.

The Flying fox Information and Care Network (FFICN) is also an excellent (Yahoo) group comprised of one hundred carers and bat experts.

Australasian Bat Society ABS) is also a key organisation to belong to if interested in the latest scientific and conservation work being undertaken in relation to bats in Australia.   Contact Secretary at secretary@ausbats.org.au

I have some other questions!
Just email VAFA and we will attempt to answer them!

Bat Resources
Leslie Hall
Flying Foxes Fruit and Blossom Bats of Australia, UNSW Press, 2000
Sue Churchill, Australian Bats, Reed New Holland, 1998

www.bellingen.com
www.sydneybats.org.au
www.abs.ausbats.org.au
www.dse.vic.gov.au
www.batcon.org