Thousands of grey-headed flying foxes gather in Adelaide's Botanic Park each evening, creating a spectacular nightly fly-out ritual. Associate Professor Wayne Boardman, a wildlife veterinarian and flying fox researcher, explains the fascinating behavior of these megabats, dispelling misconceptions and highlighting their importance.
‘I became obsessed with trying to take the perfect photo of them’: grey-headed flying foxes on a branch over the Yarra River as photographed by Doug Gimesy‘I became obsessed with trying to take the perfect photo of them’: grey-headed flying foxes on a branch over the Yarra River as photographed by Doug GimesyAs dusk approaches, thousands of grey-headed flying foxes begin chattering and stretching their wings as they prepare to ascend from their roosts in Botanic Park and set out in search of...
For many festivalgoers, the nightly fly-out ritual is their first time seeing the animals, also called megabats, up close. Boardman runs a “bat tent” near one of the main stages, kitted out with displays, videos and binoculars to educate visitors and address misconceptions about the flying foxes.“They are just astonishing animals,” he says. “The loveliness of flying foxes, their sheer beauty, astonishing biology, the amazing anatomy – it never ceases to amaze me.
“The Australian attitude towards wildlife has always been positive, providing it doesn’t inconvenience you,” Pearson says. Unfortunately for flying foxes, in their case it often does. Pearson, a co-author of the paper, works with tame education flying foxes at a wildlife park. Once people see these cute, furry animals up close, they realise they are “curious, gentle, intelligent” with individual personalities, he says.
“I became obsessed with trying to take the perfect photo of them that would show them in all their glory and all their beauty,” he says., Gimesy is hoping to show people how magnificent the animals are, “to get people to engage and ask questions and understand”. The paper says shifting attitudes towards species such as sharks and crocodiles, once subject to widespread persecution, offer optimism that contentious issues between flying foxes and people can be managed without maligning them as a species.In Fisher reserve, in the inner Melbourne suburb of North Fitzroy, children play on the green grass as an oversized flying fox takes wing with a magpie, a squirrel glider and pink paper planes against a purple sky.
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