Anyone know anything about Bats? I know in the States the birders are getting into Bats. Especailly. since wind power is getting so big. The bats are dieing like crazy around the windmills. They think the rotors are attracting them and killing them. Happens with birds too.
I've seen this bat a few times in this coconut tree. I think that's what it is anyway.
Chris
Mackay
Hi Chris,
I can't judge the size of the bat from the picture. But if its about 250mm, then its a Black Flying-fox, the largest of 4 species of Flying-foxes.
I am not convinced about the windfarm theories, because I handled quite many injured bats each year, never heard about bats injured by windfarm. For me, most of the time, any bats or birds might have accidently crashed into any man-made structures, even smashed into moving vehicles, its quite common.
Bryan
I know for sure about the wind farm stuff. I did a bird survey with the president of the ornithilogical society of the state of Wisconsin, USA and they were doing a lot of research regarding bats and wind turbines. If I remember right, the frequency of the blades attract the bats. They also do kill surveys of migratory birds at windfarms too.
Back to the bat. That bat is all black and is about 25 cm. It's a big bat. It shows up just before dusk in this same tree.
Heres a link to a Nat Geo article. There are lots of articles about this
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080825-bat-bends.html
Thanks for the interesting article.
According to the article, the rapid dropping of air pressure around the turbines that caused the dead of the bats. Will be interesting if they can find out why the bats attracted to the turbines.
I didn't know any similar reports in Australia. Will be interested to find out.
BTW, it must be the Black Flying-fox. There must be a colony of them not very far from your place.
Bryan
This photo is taken in downtown Mackay. I'm pretty close to the river, but otherwise it's just buildings. Next time I'm out there I'll have to pay close attention as to where the Bat comes from.