Flying Foxes - John Parsons 

Audio Transcript

Welcome to the Hervey Bay Botanic Gardens.

The gardens offer an amazing display of sanctuary for biodiversity and native wildlife, as well as a variety of lush landscapes.

Today, we are looking at some of our local megabats, also called flying foxes. They are named flying foxes because their large eyes, pricked ears, and long snouts resemble the fox.

Rather than looking upon them as a pest, let's call them "nighttime gardeners," and they are our superheroes in the ecology sense.

They are the largest flying mammal in Australia, and at dusk, they fly out of their camp as far as 50 kilometers to forage for nectar and fruit.

They play a vital role in our ecosystem by pollinating native trees and dispersed seeds far and wide—far more efficiently than birds and bees. They help maintain the health of the botanic gardens by promoting forest diversity.

But their dense roosting can wear heavily on the Pacific trees.

When native food is scarce, they may feed on fruit in gardens.

Three species we have in the botanic gardens are:

• The Black Flying Fox

• The Grey-headed Flying Fox

• The Little Red Flying Fox

The Little Red Flying Fox is nomadic, is the smallest one weighing only about 1 kilo, and may only roost here once a year. The other two weigh around 2 kilos.