11/10/2026
🦇Have you noticed how noisy the bats are? The flyout tonight there were distressed bats leaving early. There have been premature pups found in Rotary Park. We are on the northern edge of a heartbreaking tragedy 💔
Shared from wildlife care groups to our South:
All along the East Coast Grey-headed Flying-foxes are dying in unprecidented numbers (yes, there is that word again). Experts have confirmed it is not disease, it is mass starvation. Just to our south in Coffs Harbour they are flying around during the day looking for food.
Why does it matter? Well these animals, that can fly 50 km a night, are the super forest regenerators pollinating & spreading seeds as they go that keeps Australia's complex forest ecosystems healthy and strong. Every animal that depends on forests, including koalas, owe a debt of gratitude to these animals.
Before European settlement they numbered in the several millions, perhaps thousands of millions, and migrated up and down the temperate coast pollinating and seeding. They co-evolved with much of Australia's forests to the extent that many trees, the hardwood rainforest trees in particular, bloomed at night to welcome them.
There may still seem a lot of them to some people. But that is an illusion. They have been pushed closer to human settlement as their world has so rapidly changed and they have tried to adapt and survive.
They are now recognised as an endangered species, and an essential one.
Now a terrible starvation event is occurring for our precious native flying foxes across large regions of NSW.
Habitat loss and a relatively dry winter has yielded poor quality and quantity of nectar in flowering gums and natives. Many malnourished and dehydrated female flying foxes are in the final month of their gestational period and are tragically losing their young. They just haven’t got the nutritional health or strength to produce milk or carry to full term.
Wildlife carers are starting to get high numbers of malnourished males and females, and seriously premature pups, most too young to survive.
WIRES are also receiving reports of unusual behaviour in flying foxes, as they strive to find available foods and water. They're eating off the ground, drinking water from the grass after the rain, and hanging too low in trees. If you have flowering or fruiting trees, please remove netting and barbed wire, and keep dogs well away if you see flying foxes are hanging low in trees.
If you find a sick or injured flying fox – please don’t touch it. Call WIRES on 1300 094 737 or your local wildlife group for help and advice.
