Bats play a vital role in ecosystems, from agricultural land to tropical rainforests, scooping up mosquitoes and beetles, pollinating plants and dispersing seeds. But these diminutive mammals are also long-term hosts for serious viruses, including Ebola, a ferocious disease that drains its victims of bodily fluids, rabies, a disease that affects the nervous system, and, most […]
Tag: Grey-headed flying fox
Australia’s flying foxes offer valuable services & deserve better reputation: Study
Each night, a dark cloud of flying foxes, or fruit bats, moves through the skies of eastern Australia on their way to gorge on nectar and fruits. With a meter-wide (3.2-foot) wingspan, they transport large quantities of pollen and rain down seeds in their poop, helping establish new trees. A new study in Scientific Reports provides the first economic […]
Australia’s flying foxes are ‘curious, gentle and intelligent’ – and often misunderstood
One of the most spectacular sights at Adelaide’s Womadelaide music festival is not on the official lineup. As dusk approaches, thousands of grey-headed flying foxes begin chattering and stretching their wings as they prepare to ascend from their roosts in Botanic Park and set out in search of food. “It’s an amazing sight,” says associate […]
Despite Weather Extremes, Australia’s Grey-Headed Flying Fox ‘Is Doing OK’
The grey-headed and spectacled species of mainland flying fox — common in Australia, also known as “fruit bats” — have historically experienced such low numbers that they faced the possibility of extinction, reported The Conversation. But after a decade-long survey by the National Flying-fox Monitoring Program (NFFMP) — coordinated by CSIRO, along with state and […]
Finding mammals in Sydney (Urban mammals)
When most of us think about wildlife watching, cities are not the environments that usually come to mind. Typically urban development is associated with habitat destruction and local extinctions. However, not all wildlife species are equally affected by human activities and some have adapted and become quite successful in human-dominated landscapes. Sydney – Australia‘s largest […]