Another Strange Australian Intruder in my Backgarden

Over the last couple of weeks my back garden has just got noisier and noisier. At times I think I must be living in the middle of the jungle. It’s only when I remind myself that Coles supermarket is just five minutes down the road that I realised I’d don’t.

Last night, as the noise became overwhelming, I decided to grab my camera and go out and explore the deepest, darkest depths of my own back garden.

I made many discoveries. For example, I found out that the night vision facility on my video camera is great if you like blurred and jumpy images and also that torch batteries fade and die when you least want them to.

I also discovered exactly what the noise was…..

Yes, it turns out that fruit bats or flying foxes have been feeding in my trees, and they are noisy eaters!

grey headed flying fox1 Strange Australian Back Garden Beastie Sounds Part 2

A grey headed flying fox - cute isn't he?

Image courtesy of pierre_pouliquin

The grey headed flying fox, that’s who we get around here, has a wingspan of up to 1.2 m and can weigh up to one and a half kilograms. It is the biggest of all the fruit bats and they eat (have a guess) fruit! And nectar and blossoms. And, if I’m not mistaken, my mangoes!

Are flying foxes an Australian Bad Thing? No, not in the slightest. They are more like giant bees in as much as they collect pollen dust onto their wings and furry bodies as they fly from tree to tree eating figs, koda berries and brush cherries. They then transfer this pollen to other trees. So that’s quite useful, keeps the bush growing.

Apparently they are at their noisiest between February and April. Well, I can’t wait!

So where did they hang out before they popped round to my house?

So why are fruit bats in the category of Australian bad things? Well, they’ve trespassed on my land for one, but there is another darker reason. In a roundabout way, the fruit bat can cause death. But I’ll save that for another post.