Where have all the flying-foxes gone?

05 September 2016

Recent count reveals unusually low numbers

Recent surveys at the Tweed’s flying-fox camps have revealed most of the flying-foxes have moved out for the winter.

Only five of the 13 roost sites that are regularly home to the local population of Black Flying-fox and the threatened Grey-headed Flying-fox were occupied during the most recent quarterly census.

Numbers were well down during the August count, with only a total of approximately 1,500 flying-fox ‘hanging out’ at camps at Terranora Broadwater, Burringbar, Uki, Pottsville Environment Park and Keith Curran Park at Tweed Heads this week.

Flying-foxes migrate in response to available food sources, which vary with the seasons. It is likely there is a good supply of winter-flowering eucalypts in the west of Tweed Shire, or even in an adjoining shire, that the bats are taking advantage of at this time.

“It’s common to see some of our camps empty at this time of year but for numbers to be this low is quite unusual,” Biodiversity Projects and Planning Officer Marama Hopkins said.

“This is only the second time since the start of the monitoring program that we have seen our largest camp, at Bray Park, unoccupied. This camp is regularly home to between 5,000 and 10,000 Grey-headed and Black Flying-fox but at the moment it is unusually quiet.”

The only flying-fox camp that appears to be consistently occupied throughout the year is a mixed species camp on an island in Terranora Broadwater.

Mayor of the Tweed, Councillor Katie Milne said it would be devastating if we lost our flying foxes.

"Flying foxes are an essential part of our environment being one of the most efficient pollinators of our forests,” Councillor Milne said.

"It’s very interesting that fossil records show flying-foxes have been a part of the night sky for more than 35 million years. The ancestors of today's flying-foxes may have evolved from a primitive primate, meaning humans and flying-foxes may actually share a common ancestry," she said.

Council officers and National Parks and Wildlife Service staff have been monitoring flying-fox camps across the Tweed since November 2012, as part of the CSIRO’s National Flying-fox Monitoring Program.

If any residents have noticed a new flying-fox camp appear recently, Council would like to know about it. Please contact Council on (02) 6670 2400.