Lake Macquarie residents are urged to be on the lookout for sick and injured flying-foxes as local wildlife carers fear the worst conditions for bats in more than 25 years could wipe out a generation of the vulnerable mammal.
Lake Macquarie City Council Manager Environmental Systems Daniel Woods said tens of thousands of bats along Australia's east coast - including hundreds roosting at Blackalls Park and Cooranbong - were enduring a mass-starvation event.
"The unusually warm winter has disrupted the normal flowering pattern for trees these flying-foxes rely on for food," Mr Woods explained.
"There hasn't been enough to sustain them, and they're turning to other plant species that can sometimes be toxic to them. So there's a double-whammy of not having enough food, and then the food they are eating, such as green cocos palm fruit, is doing them more harm than good."
Flying-foxes are recognised as a keystone Australian species, vital for pollination and seed distribution.
Hunter Wildlife Rescue Flying Fox Coordinator Judith Hopper said starvation and toxin intake in recent months had first caused a wave of premature births, with most of those new pups dying, followed by the loss of adults as the situation worsened.
"We are now facing the loss of almost an entire generation," she said.
"Flying-foxes can only conceive and birth once a year and they only have one young. Following the massive losses in the 2019 Black Summer fires and the continuing heat stress losses, this year is devastating to the population's ability to maintain itself."
"We were already expecting a bad year for heat stress events, and the Blackalls Park encampment is particularly prone to suffering from these."
Mr Woods said the dire conditions had triggered a sharp increase in the number of adult and juvenile bats being found weak or dead across Lake Macquarie.
"The message to get out there is for people to report any sick or injured bats to a group like Hunter Wildlife Rescue and to cover them with a towel or box to protect them from the heat and predators," he said.
"It's also very important not to try to handle the bats yourself. Bats can have lyssavirus and while it's very rare, with fewer than one per cent of all bats carrying the disease, it can be fatal for humans."
Ms Hopper said only trained and vaccinated people were permitted to handle flying-foxes.
"The job is enormous," she said.
"We've taken 365 calls since the crisis started and the emotional toll on dedicated rescuers and carers is huge."
Ms Hopper said bats were increasingly falling victim to dog attacks also, because in desperation they were seeking out food on smaller trees within reach of dogs.
"If people could keep dogs in at night when they know there are flying-foxes around, that would be an enormous help," she said.
Residents can also hang 'garlands' of fruit, such as melon, apple and pear (not banana) threaded onto wire, in trees where bats can access them.
Go to hunterwildlife.org.au
