The "Save The Bats Campaign" Story

The title of the story was "Going to Bat for Nature," and it had absolutely nothing to do with baseball!  Had to do with the Gray-Headed Flying Fox which takes to the sky when necessary.  Found mostly in Australia, thousands of gray-headed flying foxes take to the air as darkness descends upon the country. They have a keen sense of smell and night vision which makes for great night-time hunting!  Luckily for other animals, the flying foxes search the landscape for fruits such as figs while pollinating trees along the way.  The Gray-Headed flying fox can travel up to 30 miles in one night searching for food.  They are the largest native bat species in Australia with a wingspan of up to 36 inches.  Now...that's a big bat!  And...what's interesting is that they are only found in Australia.  But, due to human growth and droughts, their numbers are diminishing.  Their numbers were in the millions in the early 1900s, but as time passes, their population is now under half-a-million.  Today, their species in listed as "vulnerable" by the Union of Conservation of Nature.  As their habitat lessens due to human growth, the bats tend to search for food closer to people which creates a threat to the bats.  Humans place mesh over fruit trees to keep the bats from eating the fruit.  And, barbed wire is also used to snare the bats as they fly.  To go along with all that, neighorhood people are not happy to share their neighborhoods with the bats which can be noisy at dusk and dawn and can poop everywhere.  As a result, local governments try to get rid of the bats with smoke guns, loud noises and fireworks.  But, it's not been very effective so far.  Australia's bushfire seasons of 2019 and 2020 was devastating to the flying fox population, killing tens of thousands of the wildlife.  But, the fires also represented a turning point for the bats' reputation.  Because they fly long distances during their nightly travels, the bats play a role in re-polinating much of the scorched land.  Pollen sticks to their fur, and they also ingest fruits, which makes them great seed-speaders.  A single flying fox can spread as many as 60,000 seeds per night.  So, they are needed to regenerate all of the land.  And, it was determined, that the flying foxes were the best way to do that.  In 2020, the New South Wales government posted a video praising the bats for their super-pollinating powers.  So, last year, when 85,000 flying foxes descended on the city of Tamworth, news coverage wasn't all bad.  One local resident called the bats "flying vermin and. complained about the smell, while others focused on how the flying bats are an amazing sight.  One resident compared the bats to a local music festival and proclaimed "We've got to live with them, they are great for our ecology.  And, I think we need to learn just how precious our wildlife is."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.