Arabic version: ثعالب طائرة تواجه الجوع في نيو ساوث ويلز وفيكتوريا

According to The Guardian, flying foxes are starving across New South Wales and parts of Victoria, prompting a surge in wildlife-rescue reports involving exhausted, emaciated adults and skeletal pups. Most reports concern grey-headed flying foxes, a species listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws.

The bats usually feed on blossoms and nectar from native trees, but food shortages have been reported across NSW from the northern rivers to the south coast. Victorian rescue groups have also received more callouts, particularly in East Gippsland and Castlemaine. Fawna wildlife rescue on the NSW mid-north coast said it was receiving 50 to 90 calls a day, more than its total bat callouts over the previous nine months.

Rachael Smethurst, Fawna’s bat coordinator, said starving bats had entered back yards to eat ornamental fruit trees and cocos palms. Some were crawling on the ground for unripe dropped fruit or falling from trees. She said animals were remaining in back yards because they did not have enough energy to fly back to camp, while many bats, including prematurely born pups, had already died.

Wires said habitat loss and a dry winter, along with poor flowering of eucalypts and other native trees, were likely factors in the mass starvation event. It said malnourished and dehydrated females in the final month of gestation were losing young because they lacked the strength and nutritional health to carry pups to term or produce milk. The NSW environment department said food shortages can be aggravated by drought and El Niño conditions, though the cause of this incident was not known for certain.

Wildlife rescuers urged people not to touch or handle bats. NSW Health said 43 people had been assessed after scratches or bites in the past two weeks. Residents were encouraged to report sick or dead bats to local rescue groups so volunteers could check for pups and provide rehabilitation or other care where possible.