On Thu, 15 Mar 2001 wrote:
> For those who don't know, the RMBG is about to kill grey-headed
> flying foxes (fruit bats) in the gardens after the Victorian
> Environment Minister REJECTED a recommendation from the relevant
> Scientific Advisory Committee that the species be listed as
> endangered under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.
Its worth noting that this not a local issue. The population of fruit
bats in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens is claimed to have increased
sharply but Grey-headed Flying Foxes reproduce only slowly.
Females bear at most one pup per year and generally have to be three
years old before they can successfully raise a pup. In other words,
Grey-headed Flying Foxes reproduce at a similar rate to the Bustards
being discussed early.
Much of the population increase at the MBG must have come from
immigration. As little or no breeding occurs elsewhere in Victoria,
the immigration presumably has come from NSW. Its thought that when
food is scarce in coastal NSW, GHFFs will move into Victoria.
Killing GHFFs in the MBG will not stop the immigration. The MBG's plan
must be to create a "black hole" for GHFFs and hence kill a sufficiently
large fraction of the GHFFs in Victoria and NSW that they no
longer create a problem in the MBG.
I'd have no problem with GHFFs being stopped using the MBG and could
accept some Flying Foxes being killed in the process, but this is
outrageous. We need an agreeement between Australian states to protect
migratory/nomadic species - similar to the international treaties which
protect migratory birds.
A lot of info about GHFFs (but not the MBG problem) can be found in:
http://batcall.csu.edu.au/abs/ghff/ghffproceedings.pdf
Andrew Taylor
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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