A FAR Northern environmental expert has condemned Katter’s Australian Party’s stance on flying foxes, warning “further assaults” on a Cairns camp could lead to population collapse.

Two KAP MPs, including Dalrymple’s Shane Knuth, have issued a list of demands for the major parties to win their support to form minority government in Queensland.

Speaking to The Cairns Post yesterday, Mr Knuth said the removal of flying foxes from populated areas, such as the Cairns CBD, was “one of the priorities”.

“We have 400 square miles (1036 square kilometres) of rainforest, plenty of places, yet they’re living in the CBD,” he said. “This is ridiculous.”

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Mr Knuth proposes setting up a funding pool for councils to access, either dispersing the animals themselves or hiring contractors.

media_camera KAP MP's Shane Knuth and Rob Katter, Parliament House, Brisbane. PIC: LIAM KIDSTON

He’s willing to allocate $150,000 over three years to each council and believes “persistent harassing” will do the job.

“We’ve had seven (human) deaths, 90 horse deaths and people’s quality of life is ruined,” Mr Knuth said.

“ ... the excreta, the noise, the stench, the ticks, day in day out – that is what people are trying to cope with.”

Spectacled flying foxes have taken roost in trees near the city library, Novotel Oasis Resort and more recently on Lake, Shields and Florence streets. Cairns Regional Council last year trimmed trees in an attempt to evict the protected species from the area and intends to undertake more pruning, pending state approval.

Brynn Mathews, an experienced environmental engineer and treasurer of the Environmental Defenders Office of Northern Queensland, said the city’s flying fox population was shrinking at an “alarming” rate, with recent counts showing a 30 per cent decline over the past year.

“The Cairns CBD camp has been repeatedly identified as a nationally important camp in scientific studies of the species and, most recently, in the Federal Government’s own draft Camp Management Guidelines for the grey-headed and spectacled flying fox,” he said.

“Any further assaults on the Cairns CBD spectacled flying fox camp may well lead to a further population collapse for this species.

“The Katter Party needs to accept the scientific evidence that dispersals are expensive and usually fail and may even drive the animals out of urban areas into agricultural areas where they will be in even greater conflict with human activities.”