Grey-headed flying foxes make Adelaide city parklands, near river, their home by the thousands since 2010
The grey-headed flying foxes' main Adelaide camp was near the zoo entrance in Botanic Park.
Grey-headed flying foxes by the thousands were recent refugees making home near Adelaide city centre in the parklands, particularly Botanic Park and the Botanic Gardens.
Grey-headed flying-foxes (pteropus poliocephalus) were recorded intermittently in South Australia for many decades but a permanent camp was only started in Adelaide from 2010. Numbers increased substantially, with a peak of around 22,000 in 2018, and down to 17,000 in January 2019.
In the previous 30 years, the flying foxes’ range had shrunk in Queensland and New South Wales and expanding southwards into Victoria and South Australia. Drought conditions were also likely to been compounded by existing pressures from habitat loss.
Historically, South Australia would have been inhospitable to these bats but Adelaide’s urbanisation created new habitats and opportunities for them to access year-round water and food supplies, including native and non-native urban tree plantings. The reliability of these urban food resources might have reduces the need for migratory movements.
The 2019 decline in the Adelaide population appeared to be due to a seasonal drop in available food. Adelaide’s summers also were a fatal risk for the flying foxes, a protected and threatened species. When temperatures reached 38°C, flying foxes in the Adelaide parklands tended to move closer to the city’s River Torrens, swooping down for a drink. In Adelaide, grey-headed flying foxes roosted in tall trees near the entrance to Adelaide Zoo, beside the River Torrens.
Flying foxes hung upside down in trees to roost during the day, usually with their wings folded or wrapped around their bodies. The vocal, intelligent and social animals aggregated in large numbers at their roosts, usually near a water source. Their camps were important sites for social organisation and protect them from predators.
With their preferred foraging range at 20 kilometres, bats left the camp around dusk each evening and return before dawn. They fed in tree canopies on blossom and nectar of banksias, grevilleas, tea-trees and gum trees(for example. spotted and lemon-scented gums) and on the fleshy fruit of date palms, lilly pillys, Moreton Bay figs and mulberries.
As the bats were wild animals, and possibly carrying disease, they should never be handled by humans. If one was found on the ground, contact should be made with the City of Adelaide parklands ranger on 0407 394 662 or customer centre (8203 7203), Fauna Rescue (8486 1139) or Bat Rescue SA (0475 132 093). This enabled an appropriately immunised person to collect the bat.
