Ecologists are warning that recent bouts of extreme heat in Australia risk decimating the country’s bat population.
As well as causing discomfort for the state’s human residents, the intense heat is once again taking its toll on the bat population.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Large colonies” have been seen falling to the ground after succumbing to heat stress in the Adelaide’s Botanic Park, home to around 17,000 bats, the ABC reports.
The state’s health department has warned residents not to touch “heat-stressed bats and pups”, which can carry dangerous diseases including the Australian bat lyssavirus, which causes rabies.
Ecologist Jason Van Weenen said that bats struggle to cope with temperatures above 40C, especially when young, and said the heatwave meant a “high likelihood of a significant number of pups dying over summer”.
Last November’s heatwave in Queensland had a devastating impact on the nocturnal mammals.
Researchers now believe that at least 23,000 spectacled fruit bats died - around one-third of the total population - over just two days in and around Cairns, where temperatures passed 42C.
Some locals were “forced to leave their homes due to the smell from thousands of rotting carcasses”, the ABC reports.
Over the same period, around 10,000 black flying foxes are thought to have succumbed to heat - and bat-watchers say that climate change predictions indicate that the situation is likely to worsen.
“Extreme heat events are increasing in frequency, also in terms of intensity and duration,” said Dr Justin Welbergen, president of the Australasian Bat Society and lead researcher into the effects of the November heatwave.
He added that bat species who roost in urban areas were only the most visible example of a more widespread impact on wildlife, and should be seen as “the canary in the coal mine for climate change”.
-
Why quitting your job is so difficult in JapanUnder the Radar Reluctance to change job and rise of ‘proxy quitters’ is a reaction to Japan’s ‘rigid’ labour market – but there are signs of change
-
Gavin Newsom and Dr. Oz feud over fraud allegationsIn the Spotlight Newsom called Oz’s behavior ‘baseless and racist’
-
‘Admin night’: the TikTok trend turning paperwork into a partyThe Explainer Grab your friends and make a night of tackling the most boring tasks
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
The Alps start the countdown to ‘peak glacier extinction’IN THE SPOTLIGHT Central Europe is losing ice faster than anywhere else on Earth. Global warming puts this already bad situation at risk of becoming even worse.
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
