Have you seen flying foxes in your suburb?

Hi Michael. I can certainly tell you one place where they are dying. There are power wires at the east end of Prospect Court in Phillip , near the old bus depot that have been installed one above the other so that anything that lands on them gets electrocuted. This is not standard practice and I haven’t seen this type of installation anywhere else. It regularly has dead flying foxes hanging from the wires. There are 3 dead flying foxes hanging there now. I hope something can be done to have the wiring corrected. Someone comes and removes them but it never gets fixed.
Cheers Mal.

I live in McKellar. A flying fox has been visiting every night for at least the last 10 days. Always comes at the same time. Managed to get some photos of him last night, though the pics didn’t turn out so great. We have a large fig tree in the backyard, and I think he likes it.

Debut69 said, “Not sure what they’re eating, however.”

At present, from the night-time antics in my neighbourhood, mainly fruit, often eating it before the fruit owner can pick it. I haven’t seen a nice fig on my tree for weeks, because the bats get them before I can. I only see small, undersized ones. My neighbour has been complaining about the bats taking her fruit too. Some people grow their own fruit rather than go to the supermarket, and as such are less likely to enjoy the bats. People who buy all their fruit from the supermarket are removed from the reality of growing their own fruit and are less likely to see problems with bats, or know what the bats are eating. The farmer likely does though.
I am thinking about netting all my fruit trees, so the bats, and possums, don’t get any.

Quite a few around Evatt at the moment. They are noisy, but I love them! Not sure what they’re eating, however.

had a fig tree in dickson two years ago, a bat was a regular evening visitor about this time of year – have a tree now in downer, but as the fruit isn’t ripe, yet to see one.

love ’em – go bats!

The bats are flapping around outside now, flying between the local fruit trees eating the fruit. They are eating most of my figs, and are busy devouring the neighbour’s fruit too. Very common and numerous here. I can see huge sales in netting happening, to stop the bats taking most of the fruit. People who think flying foxes are great probably buy their fruit from the supermarket and don’t consider home produce a resource. Or they have already invested in netting.

Get in touch with RSPCA Wildlife. They received quite a few of them over the last few years after they were caught up in netting, so they may be able to give you numbers and locations for injured animals.

Linke had a story in the Canberra Times asking people not to use the fine netting a while ago

There were heaps last year at Shackleton Ct in Mawson, but hardly any this summer. Maybe something to do with the cool summer this year.

I don’t know if they have been by lately, but they were visiting the Serious Backyard Vege Gardens near the intersection of La Perouse Street and Carnegie Cres just before Christmas – there were a couple caught in the power lines.

They had a variety of fare on offer: figs, grapes, and olives.

Saw one yesterday in Mawson. Just a lone individual. Not sure what it was feeding on, but there are lots of figs on the property. Saw one here in Page during Earth hour (March 30?) last year, feeding in the fig tree. I certainly don’t mind sharing a harvest with them. I think they are incredibly important, amazing animals. I’d love to hear about your research and help in any way if i can!