Flying foxes are starving en masse across New South Wales and parts of Victoria, with wildlife rescuers responding to a surge in reports of “exhausted and emaciated” adults and skeletal pups.
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rescuers → fly → adults
Most reports involved grey-headed flying foxes, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws and which usually feed on the blossoms and nectar of native trees.
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which → involve → trees
They are now facing food shortages across NSW, from the northern rivers to the south coast, according to the state’s environment department.
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They → face → department
Rescue organisations in Victoria are also experiencing an uptick in callouts, particularly in East Gippsland and Castlemaine.
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organisations → experience → Gippsland
Rachael Smethurst, the bat coordinator at Fawna wildlife rescue on the NSW mid-north coast, said the organisation was receiving 50 to 90 calls each day – more than the total number of callouts for bats in the previous nine months.
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organisation → say → months
The bats were starving, she said.
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she → starve → ?
“They’re coming into back yards to eat ornamental fruit trees and eating a lot of ripe and unripe cocos palms.
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They → come → palms
They’re crawling around on the ground eating unripe dropped fruit, and quite literally dropping out of trees due to starvation.
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They → crawl → starvation
Flying foxes were staying in back yards because they lacked the energy to fly back to camp, she said.
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she → fly → camp
Many were already dead, including pups that had been born prematurely.
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that → include → pups
Wildlife rescue organisation Wires said the mass starvation event was likely the result of habitat loss and a dry winter, with poor seasonal flowering of eucalypts and other natives.
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event → say → eucalypts
“Many malnourished and dehydrated female flying foxes are in the final month of their gestational period and are tragically losing their young.
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foxes → lose → young
They just haven’t got the nutritional health or strength to produce milk or carry to full term,” the organisation said.
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organisation → get → term
Some animals were displaying unusual behaviour as they struggled to find food and water.
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they → display → food
“They’re eating off the ground, drinking water from the grass after the rain, and hanging too low in trees.”
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They → eat → trees
Wires wildlife vet Dr Vere Nicolson said caring for premature pups was “labour intensive and not universally successful”, with the response made more challenging due to the number of animals involved.
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response → say → animals
Tamsyn Hogarth, director of the Fly By Night Bat Clinic, said rescuers in Victoria were seeing many “exhausted and emaciated” bats and starving babies “like little skeletons”, which appeared to be coming from NSW.
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which → say → NSW
Bats spending time in people’s back yards during the day was a red flag, she said.
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she → spend → day
“They’re so hungry they’re actually eating during the day, away from the safety of the camp,” she said.
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she → ’re → camp
There were a lot of dead pups under trees, and incidents with barbed wire, dog attacks and electrocution had also increased.
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incidents → be → wire
“We don’t know for sure what is causing this particular incident, but food shortages can be aggravated by climatic events such as drought and El Niño conditions,” a NSW environment department spokesperson said.
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spokesperson → know → drought
The state’s health department reminded the community to avoid touching or handling bats, after 43 people were assessed having been scratched or bitten in the past two weeks.
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people → remind → weeks
People were encouraged to report sick or dead bats to their local wildlife rescue, Hogarth said.
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Hogarth → encourage → rescue
That enabled volunteers to check for pups, rehabilitate animals where possible, and help ease the suffering of others – although access to veterinarians able to provide euthanasia was challenging, with so many reports coming from regional or rural areas.
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reports → enable → areas
Hogarth said grey-headed flying foxes usually gave birth to one young per year, so the loss of so many pups would have a “terrible ripple effect” for the species.
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loss → say → species
The food shortages followed thousands of heat deaths this summer, and came amid disruptions to Melbourne’s Yarra Bend camp from freeway construction works.
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shortages → follow → works
“They’re copping it everywhere, they can’t catch a break.”
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they → cop → break
The Aporia
