Pup time
Life in the air
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“Endearing animals, our first encounter with Flying Foxes was around 50 years ago and on the Tongan Island of Tongatapu. Those species were Pacific Flying Fox and the Samoan Flying Fox. Today, and in Melbourne, we meet the Grey-headed Flying Fox”.
Back in Melbourne, we visit the Yarra Bend Flying Fox camp with a dedicated team of rescuers and new trainee volunteers from Friends of Bats and Bushcare Inc and we see firsthand the professionalism and knowledge that is required to conduct Flying Fox rescues. The complexity and detail of what is required to monitor for, identify and rescue abandoned young Flying Foxes because their mothers have not returned to the camp, is extraordinary. This is a precise art.
“The Yarra Bend camp is a nationally important camp. It regularly supports more than 10,000 Grey-headed Flying-foxes and numbers can exceed 30,000 during summer. In winter, the numbers decline, but several thousand flying-foxes usually remain”. Victorian Government
Home for the Grey-headed Flying Fox Pteropus poliocephalus, the species is endemic to Australia, ranged from Rockhampton to Melbourne on the continent’s east coastal regions and hinterlands. Listed as vulnerable, the species is contracting south as populations continue to decline.
Flying Foxes feed on nectar and pollen from native trees and fruit, particular figs. Given the significant changes to Flying Fox habitats in Australia, nightly food gathering requires ever greater distances of travel. This increases the risk of feeding and the risk to young parked in the camps awaiting mum's return.
Climate change, particularly heating, development, deforestation, declining access to food sources have continued to threaten Flying Fox species in Australia.
“Our threatened Grey-headed Flying Foxes have been facing numerous challenges in Victoria in recent months. The number of calls to our Emergency Response Service regarding the species has increased by almost 288 per cent from the same period the prior year. In the past, the most common reasons for calls involving these megabats were heat stress and entanglement in illegal fruit tree netting or barbed wire; however, a new threat has surfaced - starvation”. Wildlife Victoria
Recent climate related events in Victoria and beyond, including floods and catastrophic fires have increased the pace of habitat destruction and in 2023-2024 this resulted in a mass starvation event for Grey-headed Flying Foxes. Life for Flying Foxes in densely populated places, including cities like Melbourne bring other hazards including powerlines and netting. In rural and semi-urban regions, barbed wire is also a menace.
States of confusion
“In Queensland, the Black Flying Fox, Little-red Flying Fox and the Grey-headed Flying Fox are listed as a Least Concern species under the act. The Spectacled Flying Fox is classified as an endangered species under the act and the department cannot authorise the lethal take of Spectacle Flying Foxes for crop protection. To ensure these Flying Fox spaces are conserved and any take is ‘ecologically sustainable’ the department assesses damage mitigation permits for Flying Fox against the code of practise”.
Yes, you guessed it, in Queensland they still shoot Flying Foxes despite a series of catastrophic mass die off events. The situation appears to be improving but we know from long experience that nothing is certain. We will wait to see if the newly elected Queensland Government reverses recent policies.
The phase out of Flying Fox damage mitigation permits in Queensland commenced on 1 July 2023. From 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2026 only a person who has held a Flying Fox damage mitigation permit between 1 September 2012 and 30 June 2023, may apply. The annual quota of Flying Foxes that can be shot and the maximum quota per permit have been reduced by between 80 to 90 per cent depending on the species. From 1 July 2026, permits to shoot Flying Foxes for crop protection purposes will no longer be available.
In New South Wales damage mitigation control of Flying Foxes ceased. Recent history tells us that there were 16 licences (three species) to harm 534 Flying Foxes during the period August 2017 to the end of 2020, from 1 July 2021 permits to harm these species were no longer issued.
A few weeks ago the Nature Knowledge Channel discovered a small number of Grey-headed Flying Foxes in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. We are monitoring this population and will report on future developments in a place which has been a very long way from being Australian wildlife friendly.
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