Essentially, what we have is a bat-human existential crisis!
Really! Without bats we'd be lost. “Bats and humans need each other. They desperately need us to protect and build their habitat and, in turn, we need them to pollinate our native forests,” says new media artist Dr Keith Armstrong, who heads up the Bat – Human Project.
In Australia flying foxes are yet another threatened species – and yet one which is ecologically essential because of their critical pollination and seed spreading services. Even so the grey-headed flying fox might not seem like the perfect partner to city life but if their habitat is being removed, how will they survive otherwise? This is the theory being explored by the Bat – Human Project.
The group behind the Bat – Human Project is the REMNANT/EMERGENCY ArtLab: a team of new media artists, scientists, academics and urban planners, all working together to share their knowledge and experience to examine relationships between humans and animal species – in this case, Sydney's famous bats. The bats congregate in large numbers to sleep during the day in the Sydney Botanical Gardens and through the inadvertent mechanical damage caused by large numbers of roosting bats, they are damaging the heritage trees.
You may be aware that the Sydney Botanic Gardens currently has permission to try to remove the roosting bats using industrial noise. (This is contradictory to current NSW Threatened Species guidelines - see box below). However, the Bat – Human Project have come up with a provocative idea to EXTEND the Botanical Gardens throughout the city, and are suggesting a rather ingenious idea that the harbour-front site Barangaroo includes one of these extensions as a new ecological park – an “Xtension”. This proposed park, or extension of the Botanical Gardens, would actively attract the flying fox colony to it with appropriate plantings of native vegetation and temporary perching or hanging structures.
“By welcoming them as the extraordinary ecological and tourist asset that they are – the bat migration nightly from Barangaroo becomes one of Sydney's most important and cherished tourist attractions.”
The video suggests that, instead of the current solution which is to remove them all using industrial noise, that the idea/concept of what a Botanical Gardens should be extended – removing the separations between current institutions and acknowledging the immense ecological services the gardens provide beyond the conservation of plants.
Direct Excerpt from NSW Government Threatened Species website: Grey-headed Flying-fox Profile
Threats
- Loss of foraging habitat.
- Disturbance of roosting sites.
- Unregulated shooting.
- Electrocution on powerlines.
Recovery strategies
Priority actions are the specific, practical things that must be done to recover a threatened species, population or ecological community. The Department of Environment and Conservation has identified 31 priority actions to help recover the Grey-headed Flying-fox in New South Wales.
What needs to be done to recover this species?
- Protect roost sites, particularly avoid disturbance September through November.
- Identify and protect key foraging areas.
- Manage and enforce licensed shooting.
- Investigate and promote alternative non-lethal crop protection mechanisms.
- Identify powerline blackspots and implement measures to reduce deaths.
To find out more about our batty urban co-inhabitants, the Bat – Human Project is hosting a free sunset event at Cook & Phillip Park (Sydney) on Friday 29 April 2011. There is a wet-weather plan to use the Bodhi Restaurant (right next door) if needs be.
There'll be the opportunity to meet bats up close and literally just hang around with them, Q&A sessions with bat experts, bat photography and documentary films, and fun kids' activities including bat mask-making and dress-ups.
Bring along a picnic and enjoy the evening with family and friends while the bats make their iconic flight overhead against the magnificent backdrop of the city at sunset.
A few things it might surprise you to know about bats!
- 2011 is the International Year of the Bat!
- Bats or flying fox – they're the same thing – and they're not related to foxes at all
- The bats in the Sydney Botanic Gardens are grey-headed flying foxes
- There are two main groups amongst bats – megabats (flying foxes are megabats) and microbats (little ones). Flying foxes do not naturally occur in Europe or USA – so vampire stories, which originated in Europe, do not apply
- Flying foxes are more biologically similar to monkeys and humans than they are to the microbats. They do not use sound, or, echolocation to “see” but have excellent eyesight like ours in daylight and they see better than we do at night. They do not hibernate in winter, as is common with microbats. Most of them prefer to roost in trees and avoid caves and buildings. They are principally vegetarian, whereas microbats commonly eat insects.
- They like to keep clean – they groom and comb themselves frequently and don't ‘eliminate' on themselves!
- They are the only flying mammals in the world!
- They sleep during the day at a “camp” – and forage only at night
- They don't generally eat fruit – they prefer nector and pollen or blossoms – in fact they are more important for survival of Australian hardwood species than birds and bees!
- Flying foxes are slow breeders, producing only one baby each year (after 6 months gestation) that they suckle
- In 2001 Grey-headed flying foxes were listed as Vulnerable Species: “the NSW Scientific Committee is of the opinion that the Grey-headed Flying-fox,Pteropus poliocephalus, is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances and factors threatening its survival or evolutionary development cease to operate, and is therefore eligible for listing as a Vulnerable species.” That listing still stands today!
More information:
- The Year of the Bat website
- The Bat – Human Problem: Botanical Gardens Xtension
- ARTLAB and The Bat – Human Problem
- Vulnerable listing by NSW Scientific Committee
- NSW Government Threatened Species website
- The Flying Foxes of Bellingen Island
Written by Suze Chalmers
All photos with permission and courtesy of Vivienne Jones via the Bat – Human Project.
Vivian is a freelance wildlife photographer specialising in flying foxes. Her work has been used by The Australian Museum, Government wildlife services in various states, magazines in countries such as Japan, Germany and USA as well as Australia, in newspapers, by individual scientists and in art exhibitions. Visit her site: The Flying Foxes of Bellingen Island.
