Grey-headed Flying-foxes on the move

            Pteropus poliocephalus. The Grey-headed Flying-foxes break camp in Adelaide's Botanic Park at dusk and head out to the suburbs and foothills to feed. According to Green Adelaide the current population is approximately 20,000, down from a peak of about 33,000 in early 2022. This video shows just  part of a stream of animals heading north-east more or less following the course of the River Torrens upstream. From when I first spotted them on the wing it took about 30 minutes for the stream to finally fade away. I'm familiar with another large stream that heads away to the south-east. 

The first of these flying foxes (also called fruit bats) arrived in Adelaide in about 2010. There is no history of them being more than occasional visitors before then and it is assumed that habitat loss and population pressure from a related species in NSW and Victoria prompted the shift westward.

I've always felt a bit ambivalent about them. They have at times settled in large numbers on a huge Sugar Gum to the north of me (over my shoulder from this lot) to feed from dusk to dawn when the tree is in flower. They set a up a raucous chattering as they feed which descends into a frenetic raucous bickering as the flowering ebbs over time. Finally, over just a few nights, the food resource is depleted and the tree falls silent again. 

All very interesting, but if my bedroom was on the northern side of the house I doubt whether I'd be able to sleep for the racket. These are large animals, weighing up to a kilogram and with a wingspan of over a metre. However, like so much of Australia's fauna they are a threatened species.

The video was taken on a blustery 26 December 2022. Apologies for the bad shake right at the end. It is not part of the raw video but I could not stop it appearing when I stabilised the edited material.

Taken on: December 26, 2022

Tags:

South Australia

Greg Coote

my garden

fruit bat

flying fox

Grey-headed Flying-fox

Pteropus poliocephalus

bat

megabat

Walkerville « less

Sets appears in: • Mammals

Stats: 546 views

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