Wildlife emergency declared as baby bats left by stressed mothers as Cairns booms

PHOTO: A far north Queensland ecologist believes bat deaths and construction are connected. (Supplied: Rebecca Koller)

The crane index can be a measure of a city on the move, but far north Queensland ecologists believe the developing skyline of Cairns has devastated the city's most valuable natural asset — its wildlife.

Hundreds of baby bats are dying or being abandoned as cranes work on high-rise developments in the centre of Cairns.

Ecologist Martin Cohen believes the development and deaths are connected.

"It's not unusual to get orphaned bats around this camp, however this year we're getting extraordinary numbers," he said.

"It's a perfect storm for this camp. There's just too much going on around it, which stresses the animal so much that they give birth too young or they abandon their young."
Six cranes have been erected this year to work on several new projects, including a $370 million multi-tower high-rise development.

PHOTO: Baby flying foxes are being abandoned by their stressed-out mothers in a colony next to major construction in the Cairns CBD. (Supplied: Rebecca Koller)

That work site is about 50 metres from a long-established flying fox colony in the city centre.

Mr Cohen believed the construction was having a detrimental impact on the breeding season, which began in October.

The ecologist said almost 50 per cent of the estimated 1,300 newborn bats were dying or coming into care.

"That's way too high. We should be getting half that, so something's going on this year," he said.

"This is a threatened species. Fifty per cent of their population has decreased since 2004 and they're declining at about 8 or 9 per cent each year."

Is price of development too high?

PHOTO: Wildlife carers are finding flying fox foetuses on the ground in Cairns regularly. (Supplied: Rebecca Koller)

Dr Cohen did not believe the developers were in breach of environmental guidelines.

But he questioned the scale and speed of development in the Cairns CBD and said the city needed to better plan around its wildlife.

"In my opinion it's a bit of overkill [in terms of] the extent of the development, considering there's a nationally significant and threatened flying fox camp over the road," he said.

"People come here to see the natural world and our wildlife, and at the moment it's death by a thousand cuts … we're turning the Cairns CBD into a concrete jungle."

The council argues the development strikes a balance between progress and wildlife protection.

City wins awards for urban planning

A Cairns Regional Council spokesperson said all new developments were required to comply with the principles of tropical urbanism, which included an emphasis on maintaining or creating tropical-style vegetation corridors.

The city has won national urban planning awards for its tropical urbanism concept, while Cairns has also been recognised as having one of the highest rates of tree canopy cover in Australia.

Prime Group, which is building the project, also disputed the development was impacting the colony, and said it was working closely with the council, the Department of Environment Heritage and Protection, and its own ecologists.

In a statement, the company said:

R2G Environmental Consultants have been commissioned by Prime Constructions to monitor spectacled flying foxes (SFF) at the Cairns CBD roost during construction to fulfil the conditions of the State and Commonwealth approvals for the project.

The objective of monitoring activities is to identify significant events that result in disturbance of the SFF at the adjacent roost that may impact the health of the colony.

R2G undertake weekly counts of SFF. To date disturbances, identified as greater than 30 per cent, have not occurred.

A spokesperson for Department of Environment, Heritage and Protection confirmed it had found no causal link.

PHOTO: Hundreds of flying foxes have been found dead on the ground near the construction. (Supplied: Rebecca Koller)

Wildlife carers overwhelmed

The local wildlife carers network cannot support the more than 300 orphaned baby bats rescued so far.

Carers have been called in from Brisbane to take on about 100 pups.

Lynda Stevenson, on holiday in Cairns from the Hunter Valley, also answered the call.

"I'm blown away by the amount of bats that are coming in and the stress levels the camp is under, and the carers as well," Ms Stevenson said.

"What more can you do but help them?"

Dr Cohen said the threatened species needed as much help as it could get to survive.

"Every bat we can find alive and get back into care and re-release back into the wild is vital," he said.