They're known for waking up neighbourhoods with their screeching and probably pinching fruit from your lemon tree. But many people might not realise the flying fox is one of Australia’s most important native species. Volunteers up and down the east coast are stretched to their limit with baby flying foxes hit by starvation, and they say more support is needed.
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00:00 Shoalhaven Wildlife carer Janine Davies thinks the flying foxes in her care are pretty special,
00:07 but she knows that to the general public there's a bit of an image problem.
00:11 I think Hollywood's had a lot to do with it, with vampires, horror movies, they're going
00:16 to suck your blood and all this and they're depicted as being dirty, filthy creatures.
00:23 That is so far from the truth.
00:26 Highly intelligent with around 32 different communication sounds, they're also the only
00:31 long distance pollinators for our native forests, according to ecologist Dr Karen Parry-Jones.
00:38 I've seen them in flowering eucalyptus and they look like big furry bumblebees all covered
00:45 in pollen.
00:46 They are important whether you like them or not. I don't expect people to love them, but
00:52 the hatred that is thrown at them is just not on.
00:56 Their numbers are declining and this summer they're facing a major threat. A starvation
01:01 event on the east coast is leaving hundreds of pups abandoned or orphaned at the mercy
01:06 of volunteers. Janine has 11 pups and 14 adults at home in Bomaderry. Dr Parry-Jones has nine
01:13 on the central coast.
01:16 Being a volunteer can be time consuming and expensive. Apart from committing 14 weeks
01:21 to care for the orphans, they also have to cover the costs of their own vaccinations
01:26 against the Australian bat lissa virus, as well as food, milk and electricity for the
01:31 animals.
01:32 Both women spend hours every day laundering dozens of wraps, feeding and bonding. Finding
01:38 volunteers is getting harder and the existing ones are stretched to breaking points.
01:44 One group was even, had to, well they had to make a really hard decision and had to
01:50 put them down because they had no carers to pass them on to.
01:54 It's a species that's listed as vulnerable to extinction and I have a problem with that.
02:00 They want volunteering incentivised to help save the species. For now, these pups at least
02:06 are in good hands.
02:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]