Flying-foxes are threatened by their habitat being cleared and other disturbances that impact on their breeding success.
As their habitat disappears, other environmental factors begin to have greater impact. Poor flowering and fruiting brought on by drought, cyclones and unseasonably wet weather or fires can remove critical seasonal food sources.
Ongoing tree clearing and disturbance of maternal roosts reduces the number of available roosts. If this coincides with the flying-foxes' breeding season over a number of years, local extinctions could occur, ultimately leading to the extinction of some species.
Flying-fox neighbours
Living next door to 100,000 animals of any sort can take some getting used to when they are active and noisy at night, prone to smell, and eat the fruit from your trees.
Many thousands of people are neighbours with flying-fox roosts, particularly those of the black and grey-headed flying-foxes. The enormous roosts of little red flying-foxes may create problems for people but these are generally short-lived as they move on in search of new sources of nectar and fruit every one to two months.
While the first reaction to these problems is to get rid of the bats, it is more practical to face the challenges of living with them. Permanently relocating a roost of flying-foxes can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, because the animals often return.
Tips for living near flying-foxes
The survival of flying-foxes depends on our ability to live with them. From a public health perspective, in almost all circumstances there is no reason to be alarmed if a colony moves in nearby
Park your car under shelter
Claims that flying-fox droppings strip paint from cars and houses are part of the mythology surrounding these animals. If there is any truth to this it may be due to the droppings drying and peeling off a surface and, if the underlying paint is old, lifting off a patch of the surface paint with it.
Avoid disturbing roosts
Noise and smell are issues when a roost is located nearby, or temporarily moves into an area.
When flying-foxes are stressed or frightened, they make a lot more noise. Colonies tend to be noisiest when they are disturbed by people and least noisy when left alone.
Any attempt to move a flying-fox roost requires a damage mitigation permit.
Unfortunately, little can be done about the smell of a roost. The smell is not dirtiness but a way that flying-foxes communicate with each another.
Plant roost trees away from houses
To make roost trees on private land near housing less attractive to flying-foxes, clear the understorey and remove some of the branches of the trees. Low, dense trees and shrubs planted around fence lines also form a barrier that flying-foxes are unlikely to roost in.
Over time, a roost may be encouraged to move by planting roost trees further away from houses. Surveys of flying-fox roosts in New South Wales have shown that a distance of as little as 100 metres from neighbouring houses can be enough to reduce the noise level of a flying-fox roost to an acceptable level.
Net fruit trees
Damage to local fruit trees in backyards or orchards can be a problem. The best solution is to cover the trees in netting. This also protects the trees from bird, possum and rat attack, as well as wind and hail. Netting can even create a microclimate that may improve yield.
Using the right type of netting will protect fruit. Using the wrong type of netting, or badly erecting it, may also injure or kill native birds, flying-foxes and possums if they become entangled.
- Importance of flying-foxes
- Living near flying-foxes
- Netting backyard fruit trees
- Flying-fox roost locations
- Authorised flying-fox roost management
- Indicative local government scale maps of urban flying-fox management areas
- Generate an urban flying-fox management area map
- Damage mitigation permits for crop protection
- Flying-fox viruses
- Questions and answers
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