SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
Large numbers of bats are being found
severely emaciated or starved to death in Australia amid a prolonged drought
that is crippling their food supply, according to wildlife carers and
environment officials.
There has been a "rapid increase"
in the number of stricken native flying foxes found in areas of Queensland and
New South Wales over the past two weeks, rescue group Bats Queensland told AFP.
Volunteer wildlife carer Ashley Fraser said
Tuesday that parts of the picturesque Gold Coast, a popular tourist
destination, were currently "littered" with hundreds of dead bats.
Though there have been cases of mass bat
starvation in the region before, Fraser said her organisation had never dealt
with an event on this scale.
"We can expect to see it get worse as
well," she told AFP.
"The changing climate is going to
worsen the drought and
make it a pretty poor environment for bats to try to survive in."
Some flying fox species are listed as
vulnerable to extinction. They are also a key pollinator of eucalyptus trees,
the koala's main food source.
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