Inflatable man blows away flying-foxes

BY ANDREW NEWMAN

The Royal Botanic Gardens have employed the services of a large, loud man to scare flying foxes from native trees.
The smiling ‘Mr Inflatable’ is usually used to spruik used-cars, but his contract with the gardens is to protect vulnerable trees from grey-headed flying foxes.
“The Botanic Gardens and the flying foxes can’t coexist. It’s just not working,” Dr Tim Entwisle, director of the Botanic Gardens Trust, said.
“We’ve already pulled out a couple of really big old trees that have been killed by them,” he said.
Twelve trees have died in the last ten years and another 60 are in danger. Dr Entwisle said the diesel-powered inflatable man is only a temporary solution.
“I find it noisy and a bit distracting,” he said. “For most visitors I suppose it is a bit of a novelty at this stage.”
The inflatable man will be used underneath the most vulnerable trees to relocate the flying foxes to other parts of the garden. In his first few days of duty ‘Mr Inflatable’ has proven to be effective.
“There are still three up there, but there were more than a hundred in that tree, so it has gotten rid of the main numbers,” Dr Entwisle said.
He added that flying foxes are very intelligent and will probably adapt to Mr Inflatable. But if they don’t, the gardens will consider recruiting more inflatable men.
“We thought if we get some more it would be good to get something to fit in with the gardens. Maybe we could paint flowers on them, camouflage them, but then it might not work so well,” he said.
The Botanic Gardens Trust is seeking government approval to use loud speakers to permanently relocate the 20,000 flying foxes that currently call the gardens home.
Dr Entwisle said the flying-foxes will move to other large camps, such as in Gordon, already established around Sydney.