Why Bats?

Bats support the health of our ecosystems

There are approximately 80 species of bats found in Australia, comprising both insectivorous and non-insectivorous species. Their size ranges from only a few grams to the largest flying-foxes weighing up to 1kg.

Bats belong to the order Chiroptera (meaning ‘hand-winged’), which is divided into two suborders:

Microchiroptera (Microbats)

are the smaller, mainly insectivorous bats that rely on echolocation to hunt and navigate. Echolocation is a sophisticated method of bouncing back high frequency sound waves from surrounding objects. This technique enables microbats to determine their prey’s size, shape, speed, and distance.

Microbats are natural controllers of insect populations, consuming many species that are considered agricultural pests or vectors of disease (such as mosquitoes).

Natural roost sites include caves and crevices, under the bark of trees and tree hollows. It takes more than 150 years to form even small useful tree hollows. Destruction of habitat, particularly old growth forest, is a major survival challenge for microbats. Other threats include bushfires, pesticides, roost site disturbances and persecution. Collision with wind turbine blades or barotrauma (which is an injury caused by a change in air pressure that compresses or expands gas) presents a growing threat.

Megachiroptera (Megabats)

are frugivorous and nectarivorous bats, including flying-foxes, tube-nosed bats and blossom bats.

Flying-foxes are a keystone native species, pollinating and dispersing the seeds of more than 100 species of plants and trees across long distances. They play a crucial role in maintaining the health and genetic diversity of Australia’s native forests. Their regeneration function is particularly important after bushfires, drought or other environmental disruption.

Existing and emerging survival challenges for Australia’s flying-foxes include loss of habitat, food scarcity, natural disasters and climate-driven events, invasive threats (such as myrtle rust fungus), illegal dispersal or vegetation clearing activities and various manmade urban hazards. Aside from the negative effects of widespread habitat destruction to accommodate renewables infrastructure, collisions are inevitable with wind turbines that are operating in the path of flying-foxes migrating between food sources.