'They're driving us batty' - residents want action after 200,000 flying foxes invade town
A “PLAGUE” of 200,000 bats has got residents in a flap - and prompted some to claim they are posing a public health risk.
Charters Towers residents want governments to step in over bat “plague” in the town. Scientists say best way forward is to leave them alone. pic.twitter.com/RiQiiF55Wf
— Rhea Abraham (@RheaAbraham) December 8, 2017
Critics claimed action should have been taken sooner to manage the community of flying foxes which descended on the town.
But experts insisted the flying mammals are harmless, and urged members of the public to leave them alone.
The unwelcome visitors - a large species of bat called Pteropus, and commonly known as the fruit bat or flying fox - have invaded the town of Charters Towers, in Queensland, Australia in huge numbers.
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Mayor Liz Schmidt said: “This is something nobody in this community has seen in living memory. It's way more than we've ever seen before.”
Mrs Schmidt said that the town’s regional council had been forced to close pubic parks and a swimming pool, adding: "We've actually found bat faeces in the pool and there are dead bats in and around, so they've now moved into the trees around the pool because the…trees are full.”
Resident Snow Hearne said: “This shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. "As for our children growing up in Charters Towers, they can't even access their own backyard to play safely because of the bat faeces."
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'Don't chase them around, because the more chasing around, the more stressed they'll get.'
'Don't chase them around, because the more chasing around, the more stressed they'll get.'
However, Jon Luly, an ecologist who specialises in the flying foxes, has downplayed health concerns and suggested the best idea was to leave the bats, which he said had been attracted by the scent of flowering eucalypts, alone.
He said: "Realistically speaking there's not much of a risk to health as opposed to feeling that it is dangerous.
"Don't chase them around, because the more chasing around, the more stressed they'll get.”
There are at least 60 species of flying fox, which are native to large parts of Asia, Australia, Africa and islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Although they may look like something out of a horror movie, they are by no means bloodsuckers - they feed exclusively on nectar, blossoms, pollen and fruit.
The largest species, known as the large flying fox, can have a wingspan of up 4ft 11.
More than half of all extant species are threatened with extinction.
