Flying Fox Camps in Eurobodalla

An estimated 12,000 grey-headed flying foxes are currently living in the Eurobodalla Shire, taking advantage of flowering eucalypts before moving on for the winter.

“Flying-fox numbers typically peak here between December and May, with six of Eurobodalla’s eight known camps occupied this season,” Council’s manager of environmental service, Deb Lenson said.

“Currently there are four occupied camps – the newest of these located in the Moruya township area, which is not often used and is extending into some new areas.

“We’ve done a letter-box drop for nearby Moruya residents – who may be less familiar with living alongside a camp – with information about services available to them. We try to help residents and business better understand flying-fox movements to minimise impacts such as noise, odour and faecal drop.”

Grey-headed flying-foxes are nationally listed as threatened – with declining populations and significant loss of habitat. It is illegal to disturb or kill flying-foxes without authorisation. Ms Lenson said the public health risk from flying-foxes was negligible.

Ref: Bats fly in for flowering gums, The Beagle, 15 March 2023.

WIRES Grants to Snowy Mountains

WIRES has supplied funds to the Snowy Mountains Wildlife Rescue group LAOKO. The first grant was for 35 LAOKO members to take an online WIRES basic training course. The second was for 35 NRMA wildlife rescue kits purchased from Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital (see July 2022 newsletter for info about the kits).

LAOKO is independently operated and based in the Snowy Monaro region. They received 600 calls in the last 8 months from members of the public for help with injured and orphaned wildlife.

Ref: Gail Castaway, Grants to the rescue as wildlife carers receive much-needed support, About Regional, 15 March 2023.

Coexisting with Dingoes

In NSW landholders are required to kill dingoes and wild dogs on their properties. However dingoes can actually help graziers because they kill or scare off foxes and feral cats that are predators as well as kangaroos and goats that compete for grass.

A new approach, human-wildlife coexistence, has been recognised by the UN Convention of Biological Diversity. And the Humane Society International has published a guide to Predator Smart Farming that seeks to modernise Australia’s approach to livestock protection.

This approach utilises non-lethal tools to protect livestock including the use of dogs and donkeys to defend livestock, fencing and deterrents such as lights, sounds and smells. For example one cattle farmer found that two male donkeys effectively reduced calf deaths from 53% to 6%.

Ref: Louise Boronyak and Bradley Smith, Killing dingoes is the only way to protect livestock, right? Nope, The Conversation, 15 March 2023.

Bats Provide Pest Control

Researchers at the University of New England (UNE) are investigating the way moth-eating bats could reduce the use of pesticides in wineries in NSW.

They are investigating what species of bats exist on two wineries in the NSW Northern Tablelands and whether they are eating moths. If so they could work out ways to increase the bat populations, such as artificial tree hollows in surrounding native bush. In this way they could avoid the use of pesticides.

The wine industry spends $50 million a year nationally on pesticides. UNE researcher Dr Zenon Czenze said: "If we can reliably show the cost of creating bat habitats is significantly less than the cost of pesticides then hopefully we can see this paradigm shift in biodiversity farm management practices, which can be applied to vineyards and potentially other crops that have moth pests as well."

Ref: Grace O'Dea, Research into moth-eating bats could drive natural pest control on Australian vineyards, ABC News, 14March 2023.

AI Tracks Eastern Bristlebird

The endangered eastern bristle bird had not been sighted in south-east Queensland since the 2019/20 bushfires. It is a shy, nondescript, brown bird, which flits along the ground between shrubs and there are only a few left, so the best way to find them is by their call.

This could be a long, hit and miss endeavour if it were not for “passive acoustic monitoring”. Even then, without artificial intelligence (AI), it would take too long for scientists to go through many hours of recordings listening for the bristle bird call.

A PhD student from Queensland University was able to pick the call from the recordings and train an AI program to recognise it. The program was then able to find 350 eastern bristle bird calls in 2 months worth of recordings.

The researchers are now expanding their monitoring over a broader range of habitat.

Ref: Joe HInchliffe, Scientists hail AI ‘gamechanger’ as they track down bird feared lost since black summer bushfires, The Guardian, 18 January 2023.

Fairy-Wren Rodent Run

Male and female superb fairy-wrens pretend to be rodents so as to distract predator birds from attacking other wrens.

"To do this, birds approach the threat to within striking range, assume a hunched posture, and scurry back and forth like a mouse." This behaviour distracts the predator. However “altruistic distraction display” is risky for the bird performing it and they will only do it to protect fairy wrens in their own breeding group (see Superb Fairy-Wren Societies, Feb 2022).

Ref: Ref: Ettore Camerlenghi and Anne Peters, Fairy-wrens are more likely to help their closest friends but not strangers, just like us humans, The Conversation, 10 March 2023.