SERIES 24 Episode 16

Jerry demonstrates how to have both fruit and fruit bats

Flying foxes or fruit bats are one of our most unique mammals, yet every year, thousands are injured or killed in suburban backyards.

They come in search of fruit, but end up tangled in netting as gardeners seek to protect crops. So Jerry visited bat conservationist Denise Wade. Denise promised to show him how we can have our fruit and eat it too, while still protecting this important native species.

Denise cares for injured flying foxes at her house in South Brisbane. Jerry asked what kind of injuries bats can suffer.

"They can have all sorts of injuries," Denise said. "Sometimes they suffer non-fatal electric shocks, so they're badly burnt by power lines. They can have broken limbs, broken fingers, broken bones from barbed wire entrapment. Netting causes some horrific injuries that sometimes don't appear for quite a few days. Any netting you can put your finger through is classed as extremely dangerous to wildlife."

"What sort of food would entice them into a garden?" Jerry asked.

"Any sort of fruiting tree - they're predominately nectar and pollen feeders in the wild. The Queen or Cocos palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana AKA Arecastrum romanzoffianum) is really bad for them. It can kill a flying fox in about eight different ways."

NOTE: These trees are a declared weed species for this very reason.

Jerry asked Denise, "Are we right to be so scared of bats?"

"Not to be scared of bats," she replied, "but you must not handle bats unless you're vaccinated. Apart from that, there's nothing to fear from them."

So what do you do if you find a distressed bat? "The most important thing to remember is not to touch it," said Denise. "Call your state wildlife rescue organisation and they'll send somebody out to humanely and safely rescue that animal."

Denise is vaccinated, of course, and cares for the animals both in and outside her house. They include grey-headed flying foxes, a nationally-protected species federally listed as vulnerable to extinction. She takes the most severely injured bats inside, where she also tends orphaned baby bats. She showed one to Jerry.

"This is an orphaned black flying fox and she's about 10 weeks old. She's lost her mother, so we have to hand-rear her."

Jerry was astonished at the thinness and fragility of her limb.

"It's beautiful isn't it? It's actually the same anatomy as our hand. There's a thumb and four fingers, so you imagine what happens in netting and barbed wire with that beautiful fine membrane," Denise said.

"And if they can't fly, that's basically the end of them in the wild?" asked Jerry. Denise said that yes, they'd starve to death.

Wildlife-Friendly Netting

Jerry says that if you want to protect flying foxes and your fruit trees, it's all about choosing the correct netting.

The most commonly available fruit netting has large holes and is extremely dangerous. The large, stretchy holes allow flying foxes get their wings, legs and even faces caught. But there are animal-friendly alternatives.

You can either protect individual fruit or fruit clusters with exclusion bags - search for "fruit netting bags" online, ensuring the mesh is less than less than 40 mm wide.

If you want to protect the entire tree, search for the kind of netting that's sold to protect fruit from hail. This kind of mesh has a very small, rigid weave, so the holes can't be stretched enough to cause damage.

The safest netting has the same kind of weave as shade cloth.

If unsure, contact your local bat or wildlife rescue group to see what they recommend.

"There's no great art to netting a fruit tree- just throw the stuff over the top - but it is important to tie the netting in around the trunk of the tree," explained Jerry.

"Tie it like a bonbon around the trunk," agreed Denise, "they can't get underneath the mesh to get in to the fruit."

"They're Australia's most important native animal and all four species are in rapid decline," says Denise. "They're in big trouble, so we need to look after them. We always like to say, 'No bats, no trees; no trees, no koalas', so if we want our lovely biodiversity and our wonderful forests and our hardwood forests and our world heritage areas then we need our bats."