Botanic bats stay until 2010
The flying foxes will stay for another year in the Botanical Gardens despite the severe damage they cause to historical trees.
The Botanic Gardens Trust asked the state and federal government to relocate the bats to save the trees. While the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change approved the use of noise disturbance to relocate the bats, the Commonwealth is still processing the application. This means the Trust cannot move the fox-population, and has decided to postpone the relocating.
In summer months more than 20,000 foxes populate the gardens. Botanic Gardens Trust executive director, Dr Tim Entwisle, said the decision to delay the relocation was disappointing but necessary.
“Although we expect the relocation to occur relatively quickly, we need to allow extra time in case they settle in an unsuitable area,” he said. “Our window of opportunity is May to July, after breeding and before the animals are carrying their young.”
Entwisle said the trees were suffering severely from the bats. “Eighteen trees have been lost so far, but good rainfall and excellent tree care has meant that some of the most severely damaged trees have been nursed through another year. We hope they will survive until next year.”
The Trust will use the coming year to look for suitable places within the Sydney area to relocate the foxes in 2010. Flying-foxes began settling in the Palm Grove in 1989. Over the last two decades the flying-fox camp has grown in size from a few hundred to a peak of 22,000 in summer.
– BY ADRIAAN ZEGERS
