DATA from a Maclean High School biology project is already delivering scientifically valid information on a recent newcomer to the Clarence Valley - the black flying-fox.
Four of the creatures have been tagged and fitted with electronic tracking devices, allowing students to follow their movements all day, every day.
Three of the bats roosting in Yamba have travelled 32km to Sandon to feed on the Melaleuca forests, project co-ordinator Billie Roberts said. "The students can just log-on to the computer to see where they are roosting and feeding," she said. The primary aim is to involve the high school's Year 11 biology students in quality scientific research. The students will write up the results of the research at the end of the year for an international journal, she said.
The black flying-fox is not native to the area but has been coming here in increasing numbers from Queensland since the mid-1990s.
"The more prevalent they are the more we need to know about their behaviours for management. I suspect they are less migratory than other species of flying-fox," she said.
More than 60 bats were trapped before the right specimens for the research were found. "We wanted large, healthy
Four of the creatures have been tagged and fitted with electronic tracking devices, allowing students to follow their movements all day, every day.
Three of the bats roosting in Yamba have travelled 32km to Sandon to feed on the Melaleuca forests, project co-ordinator Billie Roberts said. "The students can just log-on to the computer to see where they are roosting and feeding," she said. The primary aim is to involve the high school's Year 11 biology students in quality scientific research. The students will write up the results of the research at the end of the year for an international journal, she said.
The black flying-fox is not native to the area but has been coming here in increasing numbers from Queensland since the mid-1990s.
"The more prevalent they are the more we need to know about their behaviours for management. I suspect they are less migratory than other species of flying-fox," she said.
More than 60 bats were trapped before the right specimens for the research were found. "We wanted large, healthy
