Flying-fox fable
And what if there were no bats left? A flying-fox fable
Months went by before anyone really noticed. The nights seemed quieter. Something was missing. Fruit growers reported bumper crops but foresters found that eucalypts produced little seed that year.
"It's the flying-foxes. They haven't come back from their winter camps". Word spread and everyone soon realised that the night skies had changed: the sight and sound of flying-foxes had been replaced by an eerie silence. A survey of even the smallest roost sites found them empty.
There were no more calls to QPWS offices complaining about the smell and noise made by bats. In their place, calls came from another part of the community: people who were concerned about flying-foxes. "Where have the flying-foxes gone? What is the Government going to do about it? How can I get bats into my backyard?"
An old flying-fox was found lifeless on a power line. Not electrocuted: just dead. Zoologists retrieved its body and noted its worn teeth and wasted body. Once it had lived with thousands of other bats but now it was alone. It had been wandering in search of camps that no longer existed. Even with enough food trees it had simply stopped eating.
Another old bat was found, weak but alive, in a barbwire fence. Wildlife carers raised it with round-the-clock attention and called it "Spooky". When it was well enough, Spooky was put in a large enclosure at a zoo. Thousands of people came to see Spooky - the last flying-fox - and wondered why there was only one left when there had once been so many. "Hasn't Spooky got such piercing eyes? Do you think he's happy?" Spooky died a few months later. Some zoo staff said he died of stress - others said it was from loneliness.
Fruit growers knew that the extinction of an animal was a great loss but they also knew they would no longer lose part of their crops to flying-foxes or pay to cover their trees in netting. Fruit was plentiful and cheap… for a while.
It took little time for other fruit-eating animals to take the place of the flying-foxes. Flying-foxes may have been competing with some of these animals for food and therefore helping to keep their numbers in check. Fruit already damaged by flying-foxes would have also been eaten by some of these animals but now they had simply jumped the queue and were getting to the fruit first.
Fruit growers were soon fighting a whole new army of crop raiders.
A scientist commented on the issue in the local newspaper:
"If you create an opportunity, nature will always make the most of it. The trick is to manage those animals that can become pests so they do as little damage as possible. Removing them completely can just make room for new pests to move in - and if we get too good at controlling pests there may be no insects left to pollinate the fruit trees in the first place. Some native animals can become overabundant and create problems, but they also play an important role in keeping ecosystems working. They move seeds about, pollinate flowers, eat and get eaten - moving nutrients around all the time. And if you hadn't thought about it: we all need these natural processes too - to breathe, to eat, to use, and even to admire or learn from. We are more dependent on nature than nature is on us."
And now there are no flying-foxes at all - and the forests seem to be changing as well. The eucalypts have little seed. Without a pollinator that can fly long distances, trees are only being cross-pollinated by their nearest neighbours; limiting their genetic variability. These trees are finding it harder to adapt to changes in climate, or counter the ongoing adaptations of the various pests living on them. The eucalypt forests are getting sick.
The seeds from fruits that once travelled in the stomachs of flying-foxes now fall and struggle to grow in the shadow of their parent trees. Trees that spread their seeds in fruit are getting older, and fewer of their kind are growing up to replace them.
The rainforests are changing and scientists are hurrying to identify what resources these forests hide - new drugs, new foods, new materials, and new ideas. Will there be time before the trees die out? What rainforest secrets will never be discovered?
Can we really live without flying-foxes or is it better to learn to live with them?
Last updated: 09 January 2006