The barrage of record-breaking heatwaves has left untold numbers of the Hunter’s native flying foxes dead or on the verge. A “starvation year” and mid-40 degree days have left more than a thousand bats dead, vulnerable colonies and animal rescuers struggling.
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“It’s been horrific, absolutely horrific,” Native Animal Trust Fund carer Judy Hopper said.
The latest heatwave, which saw Maitland, Cessnock and Singleton break temperature records, put extreme stress on bat colonies. In Singleton volunteers are still pulling dead animals from Burdekin Park – the body count is expected to climb past 1000.
“We pulled hundreds of dead bats out on Saturday,” Ms Hopper said, holding up a photo on her phone of a bed sheet filled with carcasses. “That sight doesn’t leave you”
She is currently sharing her home with 75 rescued bats (including 20 from Burdekin Park), two wombats and swamp wallabies.
“I had one young male in a tepid bath, with a fan pointed at him, trying to get his body temperature down,” she said. “But he’d lost the ability to thermoregulate. His organs were too damaged. I went in the other room for a moment and, when I came back, he was dead.”
In Maitland and Cessnock, where temperatures reached almost 46 degrees, carers hosed the camps to keep the animals alive. Ms Hopper said Maitland’s bats were sitting so low and exhausted in the trees, the carer was able to hold the hose directly up to the animals’ mouths.
“The people who do this are their carers, they’re passionate,” she said.
Ms Hopper said the hot and dry weather had not produced the amount of moisture for native trees to flower and produce the nectar bats, birds and other animals rely on. Even before the high temperatures, the colonies were experiencing a famine.
Residents have long complained about the smell and noise around the Hunter colonies, not to mention the sight of stripped trees. Suspicious fires have broken out at Cessnock’s colony on multiple occasions.
And while Ms Hopper doesn’t deny the camps are unpleasant, she urged people to understand the issue before lashing out.
“We cut down their homes,” she said.
“What would you do if someone destroyed your home? You’d have to go and stay with a friend. That’s what they’ve done, there’s no where else for them to go. We’ve effectively created slums for these animals.”
