A report of direct mortality in grey-headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) from the 2019–2020 Australian megafires
Matthew Mo
A * , Mark Minehan B , Edward Hack B , Vanessa Place C and Justin A. Welbergen D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Planning and Environment, Saving our Species program, Biodiversity, Conservation and Science Directorate, 4 Parramatta Square, 12 Darcy Street, Parramatta, NSW, Australia.
B Goldfields Drive, Jeremadra, NSW, Australia.
C 72 Malabar Drive, Moruya, NSW, Australia.
D Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW, Australia.
Australian Mammalogy 44(3) 419-422 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM21041
Submitted: 3 November 2021 Accepted: 9 March 2022 Published: 17 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.
Abstract
Study of the impacts of the 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires on flying-foxes has mainly focused on the effects of burnt habitat on food availability. It has previously only been assumed that flying-foxes probably died directly from these bushfires. We report an eyewitness account of numbers of grey-headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) being killed as they attempted to escape a bushfire engulfing a flying-fox camp in Jeremadra, New South Wales. Once in the air, most of the flying-foxes dropped to the ground, scattering carcasses throughout the vicinity. This observation represents the only eyewitness report of flying-fox mortalities occurring directly from these bushfires. Given the substantial proportion of the grey-headed flying-fox range affected by these bushfires, we infer that such mortalities likely occurred in other locations.
Keywords: bats, Black Summer bushfires, bushfire impacts, community science, flying-fox camp, mass mortality, Pteropodidae, threatened species.
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