A large, newly discovered ghost bat colony in Queensland

John Augusteyn; Karl Goetze; Roger Coles

doi:10.1071/ZO22045

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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A large, newly discovered ghost bat colony in Queensland

John Augusteyn

^A ^* , Karl Goetze ^B and Roger Coles ^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, PO Box 3130, Red Hill, Qld 4701, Australia.

^B Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, 83 Main Street, Atherton, Qld 4883, Australia.

^C Nanobat Systems, PO Box 1540, Kenmore, Qld 4069, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: John.Augusteyn@des.qld.gov.au

Handling Editor: Laura Wilson

Australian Journal of Zoology 71, ZO22045 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO22045

Submitted: 5 December 2022 Accepted: 11 July 2023 Published: 27 July 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Obtaining accurate counts that do not cause harm to the animals being studied are important for assessing a species’ conservation status. A single evening exodus of ghost bats (Macroderma gigas) was recorded using a thermal imaging camera placed outside the entrance to a cave on Alwal National Park (CYPAL) in September 2022. At least 463 bats were counted, making it the largest known ghost bat colony in Queensland. Further work is required to determine the extent to which this colony is related to other nearby colonies in Cape York Peninsula. Work is also required to identify and reduce threats to this population and ensure its conservation.

Keywords: abundance, Cape York, disturbance, non-invasive, thermal camera, thermography, threatened species conservation.

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