Bats good news! Grey-headed flying-foxes numbers are flying high

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-03-22 05:00

Australia; NSW; VIC; QLD; SA

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Australia's grey-headed flying-foxes are flying high, with numbers remaining stable despite the species being listed as vulnerable. The researchers have analysed data from Australia's National Flying-fox Monitoring Program (NFFMP) and found that between 2012 and 2022, the grey-headed flying-fox population remained stable with the range also stable. The authors say this is good news, and it may be that these bats' abilities to travel long distances and eat a broad diet help them to be resilient to various disturbance events such as fire, drought, and heatwaves. [edited on 26 March 2024 to remove a sentence that incorrectly attributed the vulnerable status to the 2019–2020 megafires, the species has been listed as vulnerable since 2001]