Great video! The most important thing to remember with flying foxes is, we need 'em. If we lose them all, we lose the bush-Australian biodiversity would hit a cliff and all our eucalypts and the animals that rely on them will die. How can you help? Not directly. Leave them alone; they'll leave you alone. Find out the phone number of your local carers/rescuers, and if you see a bat in trouble (if it's during the day, they're always in trouble unless they're in their camp), call the number. Don't touch 'em and don't go near 'em. If you get scratched or bitten by a bat-the bat must be captured and killed (to be tested for Lyssa virus). Another way you can help is to find a carer/rescuer and support them. They take time out of their days to help these soaring St. Bernards and while the government does pay for their vaccinations against Lyssa virus, they don't cover all the other bits and pieces needed to take care of an injured bat.
I completely agree. I remember a few months ago I was walking in this reserve near a small body of water, and I heard something wheezing or screeching. I found it to be a baby grey flying fox. Luckily he didn’t drown, and I wrapped it around my jacket very delicately and called the nearest wild life reserve. They came very quickly and since then I’ve been getting monthly updates from the vet who helped. His name is Ajax. They told me that based on the heavy construction in my area, that a lot of deforestation nearby had been going on, and so mother flying foxes have been migrating more where I live then they’re supposed to. The exhaustion, lack of food or an altercation with a predator could have caused the mother to drop her baby.
I'm the guy at the tent in the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Thank you for making this film. Really lovely and much-needed work. I still work with the bats and have just sent two orphan ff pups (starlight and wriggle) off to bat school prior to their supported soft release in Yarra Bend Park and the start of their life in what's left of "nature". I love the breathless "disease" discourse of media (mostly tabloid) when one can contract many dozens of life-threatening diseases, viral and other, from other humans just by visiting a pub or tram or walking down the street. I think the death toll globally from 1918 "Spanish flu" was 18 million or so and our recent Covid is over 7 million. The bat death toll in Australia is 3 persons from the rare Lyssavirus - the only virus that can be caught from an infected bat. Hendra is via a horse. Pre and post exposure vaccines exist for both viruses. Bats don't even make the National Coroners List of Animal Causes of Human Deaths - it's that low. And don't even think about comparing the road toll or domestic violence stats. And bats are a health risk? - Yeah right. Shame on 60Min. Of course, if bitten by any wildlife - see your doctor. Always call a local wildlife rescue service for a free bat pick up. NB: They only "smell" during mating season when the boys lay on the Lynx effect from a shoulder gland and display their assets to the ladies - with varying degrees of success!! Oh, and they shout a lot. Like a pub at 2am. :) Also there a small camp in the RBG again and they're more welcome this time due to better educated management. Thanks again for great video work. Australian Flying foxes Build Forest!!
As an Australian, it wasn't until I was in my mid teens that i realised some bats were small. i just thought all bats were the size of small cats. Before that I thought movies were using the incorrect sized props when showing bats.
Thanks for going to bat for the bats. I volunteer at a bat sanctuary and they are such adorable, maligned animals. Fun fact for the day: the babies are only calm when under the mums wing and holding onto the teat, so we roll them up in blanket burritos and give them baby dummies. Adorable.
Had one shit on my car, and when I washed it off the next day it took the paint off. Truly amazing creatures and I'm left with a reminder every time I drive it.
@@patrickwastie5bat shit is actually slightly alkaline, unlike bird shit which is full of uric acid and phosphorus. I call bullsh*t on the overnight paint stripping...
Hey, palaeobiologist here. Just wanted to stop by and say your brief discussion of their fossil record and evolution was well-done and spot on. I was pleasantly surprised - though by now I shouldn’t be. Your videos are magnificent!
I moved to Australia from America a couple years ago, and I still stop and stare in wonder when I see flying foxes - even when we had a camp a few hundred metres away. They’re beautiful!
I was a second away from a meltdown, just having crap brain day. This popped up in my notifications, thankyou backyard naturalist, and may I say another 👌 video
OMG this guy is brilliant. I’ve said it before in one of his videos; I have been waiting years and years for documentaries about what’s going on in OUR backyards (Not in David Attenborough’s backyard!). In the main street where I live, every evening just after dusk, there is a colony of microbats, I think they are, and they are spectacular. They make this kind of whistling noise, all on mass, it is truly fantastic. And interesting because, I didn’t know that they ate insects, I thought they were strictly fruit bats, nor did I realise how much of an impact they have on cross pollination. So thank you thank you.
The constant reinvention descriptions that this guy does in all of his videos has me rolling on the floor ("hovering hounds", "winged wolves") and that newsreel commentary at 8:51 is pure gold. But there's a message, and that's really special. Any day that the Backyard Naturalist posts a new video is a good day.
The flying foxes have caused problems in Machattie Park in Bathurst through no fault of their own - they used to live in the willow trees along the Macquarie River but when these were all cut down they moved into the city park and have all but destroyed the wonderful old trees there, as well as being a health risk to people in the park. The council had planned to provide corridors of habitat for the flying foxes but as yet this still hasn't happened. I should add that in summer they have not infrequently been dropping dead from the heat. Thanks for the very informative video - I've directed people overseas onto your channel, it's fabulous.
I love watching these guys flying over Melbourne from my balcony at sunset, and also checked out their habitat at Yarra Bend a few times. Such fascinating creatures! Thanks for this much needed video!
One of the biggest things I miss from my old job was being able to watch thousands of Flying Foxes fly past the window at dusk from the rooftop bar, and having tourists and visitors ask me all sorts of questions about them.
I watched them fly over my summer solstice evening walk and was delighted, hadn’t had that experience for a while and thought it was a fabulous omen. Thanks for another insight
Thank you so much for making this video. Fruit bats are so silly and quirky, and watching them interact with eachother is amusing. They were a positive precense during a more difficult chapter of my life, and it's partly why I love them so much. I'm grateful to be close to a park where there are hundreds of these guys. There's a walking track that takes you through their roosting area, where you can watch them fly around and slap each other with their wings lol.
We had a flying fox electrocute itself on the powerline in our street years ago, but its body continued to hang off the line for about a month. RIP Sparky. Gone too soon but you sure stuck around regardless
My primary school had a community of flying foxes around the oval, where we had to call the park rangers twice to remove injured/dead ones from our playspace. I always think back fondly to helping Mrs V play on the African drums late in the afternoon to shoo them back from the ovals edge a bit. Makes me want to paint a picture.
very good video. i started crying seeing all those animals lifeless on the ground. people complaining about bats or flying foxes and their smell/noise are the same complaining that they are gone forever. i cannot believe that there are areas on our planet were they already have gone extinct and you can only see them in books or zoos.
Another quality video as always.👍🏼🇦🇺 Another threat to Flying Foxes that many people don’t know about are those wretched Cocos Palms. (Syagrus romanzoffiana) know as the Queen or Cocos Palm produce horrible smelling orange fruits that the bats will eat but because they are not part of there native diet they can’t digest them properly so they get severe constipation and die because of it.😢 The flower sheathes are also VERY rough and sharply edged which can damage there wings or cause them to get stuck in the tree where they can die from heat stroke, stress or bird attacks. If anyone has these trees remove them if possible they are actually awful weeds, look like shit and spread like wild fire.
I don't know how you do it. Educate and make me laugh at the same time. Brilliant. I will say we are renowned for trashing others homes. When will we realise it is our home we are trashing?
I put out pieces of banana up a tree for a visiting Black fruit bat. Sometimes we have a "face to face" encounter, but usually it is too dark and I may only see a dark silhouette in the tree enjoying the fruit. I live near a bat camp, they often fly low through my yard while checking out neighbourhood trees for food, they seem huge then.
I didn't know him personally but grew up near where the kid died from the bat scratch. Because of this I've been terrified of fruit bats most of my life. I had not idea how interesting and important they were until now. I'm still never going to touch one but this video game me a better opinion on them.
Ahhhh the squealing of flying foxes in their thousands at dusk. The sound of home. I love the way various Aussie flying critters are all so squawkingly raucous instead of sweetly trilly. Very Oz. (And of all of them it is the terrifying magpie has the melodic warble, go figure)
Lived as a kid in BrisVegas for a while in Kangaroo Point. There was a large mulberry tree nearby. Mum soon learned not to leave laundry hanging outside overnight as in the morning the laundry would be stained with mulberry bat crap. Anyway thanks for the great content this year and wish you a great festive season 👍
I'd go watch my local bat colony, but it happens to be right above the local ibis colony... above some mangrove flats... Individually, all very lovely. But combined, the stench is something to behold...
Flying foxes fkn rule! There’s been a colony near my home for decades and we used to travel to wingham every Christmas to visit my Nan and the spectacle of seeing the nightly launch of 10s of thousands of bats from the wingham brush is something I’ll never forget, and yes they stink, like seriously badly as well like a thousand teenage boys who simultaneously missed the bowl and pissed on your floor!
Another one in the bag for the backyard naturist. I think the reason why this video is important is because it allows the viewer to be spoon-fed information on these random animals, and I have to say, I love the taste 👄.
I used to live in the inner Melbourne area, and it was always a treat seeing the flying foxes flying overhead, either watching them from home, or as I was driving back home, in their thousands. And I agree, go check out your local colony at night. Despite all the noise they make in their roosting area, they're incredibly silent flying overhead in their thousands.
We don't have the pleasure of megabats in Perth, but I lived in Broome for a while and remember seeing them fly over town one evening. They just kept coming, it was like they were infinite. And they were completely silent - a big change from the "I'm being murdered" screaming from them while they roost in the mangroves.
Thank-you for going into bat for the bats! They are wonderful creatures. It's just magic if you're honoured enough to have a few roost in your garden when the trees are in bloom.
Here in Newcastle with the Hunter Wetlands in close proximity they are a common sight and squeak away happily in the trees at night. And anything that eats those noisy cicadas gets my vote.
I’m glad someone actually brought more awareness to the importance of flying foxes and how we are endangering them. Really we just have to figure out a way to stop destroying their habitat….
When my partner and I visited QLD I was SO surprised by how many of these beautiful beasties we'd see! I knew there were more flying foxes on the east coast but wasn't expecting to see as many as I did. Watching them at sunset was wonderful. I'm actually surprised to learn that the grey-headed flying fox range reaches down to Vic's south coast, I'd have assumed it gets too cold and windy down here for them! Awesome video as always, I also really liked how you were factual and to the point about disease risk too.
Thank you for another really informative post. I look forward to your posts and learn heaps from them. Wishing you and all your family a very happy festive season. 🎄
Dude this is crazy... I literally went down a rabbit hole last night on flying foxes cause I keep seeing them dive bomb into neighborhood trees, thank you for talking about these fine creatures
amazing video! (as are all of the ones you make!) however it wouldve been great to also mention flying fox paralysis syndrome (FFPS) which has affected our wonderful flying friends over the past few years very similarly to lorikeets! keep up the great content!!
I've always been fascinated by the mega bats of Pteropodidae, specifically down under's flying foxes. Im glad you're shining the spotlight on the Aussie fruit flappers 🦇💚
I grew up in Bundaberg. I remember instances of people trying to move on the bat colonies. Between them and the rainbow lorikeets in the CBD, your car is bound to get 💩 on it but hey, they're such amazing creatures.
Heading to Brissy for the first time as a person from Perth was truly wild. We only have sparse small bat species in Perth so it was the first time I ever saw the flying foxes in the wild. It was like the white cockatoo flocks we have at dusk here! Very cool!
I love them. We have a couple of camps up here in Maryborough QLD, including a small one up the back of my yard. I leave the fruit on my loquat for them and plenty of water around (I help the birds too, particularly my maggie families). Watching them fly around at sunset is just mesmerising. We need to stop thinking like the US; like everything is a threat and realise Elon is more likely to end us than save us and just embrace our natural environment.
Yet another glorious video from the Backyard Naturalist. Could not agree more about flying foxes. Bats in general. Let us hope for a new year of better appreciation going out to our indispensable mega bats! Now that's a phrase I never thought I would use.
Well done on the video. Lots of very interesting facts about the flying foxes we complain about because they stink and are noisy. I remember reading recently they poop out some seeds to populate trees that no other bird does. So very important to the eco system. It made me appreciate them.
I've seen them all lining the banks in their thousands at Yarra Bend - a memorable day, not least because it was right after watching Neil Gaiman present Niall Doran's Sixteen Legs, a doco about spiders that included newly discovered details about spider sex 😄
Brilliant. Love the flying foxes. I live in a small east coast rural town and we have 2 camps here.. both by the river… I feel like if they are here in huge numbers, we must be doing something right.
This is one of my fav channels, idk how I missed this vid. I recently had flying foxes in my backyard every night and they ate all the apricots from my apricot tree, so I do not like them. But I like this video so I forgive them. It was probably the guys @ 10:25
Great video! The most important thing to remember with flying foxes is, we need 'em. If we lose them all, we lose the bush-Australian biodiversity would hit a cliff and all our eucalypts and the animals that rely on them will die.
How can you help? Not directly. Leave them alone; they'll leave you alone. Find out the phone number of your local carers/rescuers, and if you see a bat in trouble (if it's during the day, they're always in trouble unless they're in their camp), call the number. Don't touch 'em and don't go near 'em. If you get scratched or bitten by a bat-the bat must be captured and killed (to be tested for Lyssa virus).
Another way you can help is to find a carer/rescuer and support them. They take time out of their days to help these soaring St. Bernards and while the government does pay for their vaccinations against Lyssa virus, they don't cover all the other bits and pieces needed to take care of an injured bat.
Well said
I completely agree. I remember a few months ago I was walking in this reserve near a small body of water, and I heard something wheezing or screeching. I found it to be a baby grey flying fox. Luckily he didn’t drown, and I wrapped it around my jacket very delicately and called the nearest wild life reserve. They came very quickly and since then I’ve been getting monthly updates from the vet who helped. His name is Ajax. They told me that based on the heavy construction in my area, that a lot of deforestation nearby had been going on, and so mother flying foxes have been migrating more where I live then they’re supposed to. The exhaustion, lack of food or an altercation with a predator could have caused the mother to drop her baby.
If we don't address climate change, these bats will be cooked. Don't vote for parties that deny and delay climate action. Its not hard to pick them.
advice not actually that helpful. all you say is "local carers/rescuers". what do I search for?
@@azzarooni8532 Search "wildlife rescue" and your nearest city name after it. They will either send someone out or give you a number to call.
I'm the guy at the tent in the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Thank you for making this film. Really lovely and much-needed work. I still work with the bats and have just sent two orphan ff pups (starlight and wriggle) off to bat school prior to their supported soft release in Yarra Bend Park and the start of their life in what's left of "nature".
I love the breathless "disease" discourse of media (mostly tabloid) when one can contract many dozens of life-threatening diseases, viral and other, from other humans just by visiting a pub or tram or walking down the street. I think the death toll globally from 1918 "Spanish flu" was 18 million or so and our recent Covid is over 7 million. The bat death toll in Australia is 3 persons from the rare Lyssavirus - the only virus that can be caught from an infected bat. Hendra is via a horse. Pre and post exposure vaccines exist for both viruses. Bats don't even make the National Coroners List of Animal Causes of Human Deaths - it's that low. And don't even think about comparing the road toll or domestic violence stats. And bats are a health risk? - Yeah right. Shame on 60Min. Of course, if bitten by any wildlife - see your doctor. Always call a local wildlife rescue service for a free bat pick up.
NB: They only "smell" during mating season when the boys lay on the Lynx effect from a shoulder gland and display their assets to the ladies - with varying degrees of success!! Oh, and they shout a lot. Like a pub at 2am. :) Also there a small camp in the RBG again and they're more welcome this time due to better educated management. Thanks again for great video work. Australian Flying foxes Build Forest!!
I love this dude. He is pretty much the direct reason why I like birds. I watched one of his videos and then I got really into birds.
Haha same here mate
Birds and... bats I suppose?
Love your comment. I mean, I really love your comment. Keep enjoying those birds.
Same, I have a family of Maggies now.
Literally same
As an Australian, it wasn't until I was in my mid teens that i realised some bats were small. i just thought all bats were the size of small cats. Before that I thought movies were using the incorrect sized props when showing bats.
Thanks for going to bat for the bats. I volunteer at a bat sanctuary and they are such adorable, maligned animals. Fun fact for the day: the babies are only calm when under the mums wing and holding onto the teat, so we roll them up in blanket burritos and give them baby dummies. Adorable.
You guys would make an absolute cauldron (heh, bats) making videos of baby burrito bats chugging on dummies, please let us witness the tiny taquitos ❤
@@UV5588 I agree!
Had one shit on my car, and when I washed it off the next day it took the paint off. Truly amazing creatures and I'm left with a reminder every time I drive it.
Now that shit is inspiring
@@the-Backyard-Naturalist I shit you not, it is
Wow I didn't know the millions of bats that fly above me in Melbourne have acidic shit
Yep, Aussie creatures are dangerous. Even the bats drop acid shit😊
@@patrickwastie5bat shit is actually slightly alkaline, unlike bird shit which is full of uric acid and phosphorus. I call bullsh*t on the overnight paint stripping...
Its good to see people starting to realise just how much we rely on a very delicate ecosystem that is well onto its way to collapsing
Hey, palaeobiologist here. Just wanted to stop by and say your brief discussion of their fossil record and evolution was well-done and spot on. I was pleasantly surprised - though by now I shouldn’t be. Your videos are magnificent!
Merry Christmas Backyard Naturalist! 🎅
Merry Christmas 🙏
I moved to Australia from America a couple years ago, and I still stop and stare in wonder when I see flying foxes - even when we had a camp a few hundred metres away. They’re beautiful!
I was a second away from a meltdown, just having crap brain day. This popped up in my notifications, thankyou backyard naturalist, and may I say another 👌 video
OMG this guy is brilliant. I’ve said it before in one of his videos; I have been waiting years and years for documentaries about what’s going on in OUR backyards (Not in David Attenborough’s backyard!). In the main street where I live, every evening just after dusk, there is a colony of microbats, I think they are, and they are spectacular. They make this kind of whistling noise, all on mass, it is truly fantastic.
And interesting because, I didn’t know that they ate insects, I thought they were strictly fruit bats, nor did I realise how much of an impact they have on cross pollination. So thank you thank you.
The constant reinvention descriptions that this guy does in all of his videos has me rolling on the floor ("hovering hounds", "winged wolves") and that newsreel commentary at 8:51 is pure gold. But there's a message, and that's really special. Any day that the Backyard Naturalist posts a new video is a good day.
Love this. Our mango tree is just for the bats ❤
The flying foxes have caused problems in Machattie Park in Bathurst through no fault of their own - they used to live in the willow trees along the Macquarie River but when these were all cut down they moved into the city park and have all but destroyed the wonderful old trees there, as well as being a health risk to people in the park.
The council had planned to provide corridors of habitat for the flying foxes but as yet this still hasn't happened.
I should add that in summer they have not infrequently been dropping dead from the heat.
Thanks for the very informative video - I've directed people overseas onto your channel, it's fabulous.
I'm here from Texas ❣️
Thank you for speaking out for the bats
I currently have a small camp of "desperadoes" visiting the flowering eucalyptus in my Adelaide front yard.
There's a lot of them in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and along the Torrens at night.
I love watching these guys flying over Melbourne from my balcony at sunset, and also checked out their habitat at Yarra Bend a few times. Such fascinating creatures! Thanks for this much needed video!
Hell yea, love flying foxes 🦇
One of the biggest things I miss from my old job was being able to watch thousands of Flying Foxes fly past the window at dusk from the rooftop bar, and having tourists and visitors ask me all sorts of questions about them.
I watched them fly over my summer solstice evening walk and was delighted, hadn’t had that experience for a while and thought it was a fabulous omen. Thanks for another insight
Thank you so much for making this video. Fruit bats are so silly and quirky, and watching them interact with eachother is amusing. They were a positive precense during a more difficult chapter of my life, and it's partly why I love them so much.
I'm grateful to be close to a park where there are hundreds of these guys. There's a walking track that takes you through their roosting area, where you can watch them fly around and slap each other with their wings lol.
We had a flying fox electrocute itself on the powerline in our street years ago, but its body continued to hang off the line for about a month. RIP Sparky. Gone too soon but you sure stuck around regardless
My primary school had a community of flying foxes around the oval, where we had to call the park rangers twice to remove injured/dead ones from our playspace.
I always think back fondly to helping Mrs V play on the African drums late in the afternoon to shoo them back from the ovals edge a bit.
Makes me want to paint a picture.
very good video. i started crying seeing all those animals lifeless on the ground. people complaining about bats or flying foxes and their smell/noise are the same complaining that they are gone forever. i cannot believe that there are areas on our planet were they already have gone extinct and you can only see them in books or zoos.
Loved this mate. Such incredible animals and so vital to our ecosystems!
Another quality video as always.👍🏼🇦🇺
Another threat to Flying Foxes that many people don’t know about are those wretched Cocos Palms.
(Syagrus romanzoffiana) know as the Queen or Cocos Palm produce horrible smelling orange fruits that the bats will eat but because they are not part of there native diet they can’t digest them properly so they get severe constipation and die because of it.😢
The flower sheathes are also VERY rough and sharply edged which can damage there wings or cause them to get stuck in the tree where they can die from heat stroke, stress or bird attacks.
If anyone has these trees remove them if possible they are actually awful weeds, look like shit and spread like wild fire.
Those palms truly are awful here
I don't know how you do it. Educate and make me laugh at the same time. Brilliant. I will say we are renowned for trashing others homes. When will we realise it is our home we are trashing?
Love the use of SotN music.
Haha i did a double take when the first couple of bars came in 😂
I put out pieces of banana up a tree for a visiting Black fruit bat. Sometimes we have a "face to face" encounter, but usually it is too dark and I may only see a dark silhouette in the tree enjoying the fruit. I live near a bat camp, they often fly low through my yard while checking out neighbourhood trees for food, they seem huge then.
I didn't know him personally but grew up near where the kid died from the bat scratch. Because of this I've been terrified of fruit bats most of my life. I had not idea how interesting and important they were until now. I'm still never going to touch one but this video game me a better opinion on them.
Ahhhh the squealing of flying foxes in their thousands at dusk. The sound of home. I love the way various Aussie flying critters are all so squawkingly raucous instead of sweetly trilly. Very Oz. (And of all of them it is the terrifying magpie has the melodic warble, go figure)
Lived as a kid in BrisVegas for a while in Kangaroo Point. There was a large mulberry tree nearby. Mum soon learned not to leave laundry hanging outside overnight as in the morning the laundry would be stained with mulberry bat crap. Anyway thanks for the great content this year and wish you a great festive season 👍
BrisVegas being the original indigenous name for the area?
I'd go watch my local bat colony, but it happens to be right above the local ibis colony... above some mangrove flats...
Individually, all very lovely. But combined, the stench is something to behold...
When the castlevania song hit- no, I already knew it was gonna be a good video, but I had to watch it again cuz I was too busy vibing
Love the video mate! You’re a massive inspiration for my channel and my dream is to showcase how awesome Australia’s creatures are like you
The more I hear about humans the more I realise that about 90% of us don’t deserve to live
ahhh the best kind of christmas prezzie also maybe frog vid next?
Another stellar video, thanks for doing our own home-grown superhero bats the justice they deserve. Merry Christmas Darcy!
Flying foxes fkn rule! There’s been a colony near my home for decades and we used to travel to wingham every Christmas to visit my Nan and the spectacle of seeing the nightly launch of 10s of thousands of bats from the wingham brush is something I’ll never forget, and yes they stink, like seriously badly as well like a thousand teenage boys who simultaneously missed the bowl and pissed on your floor!
Rarely do I smile so much while learning so much, but this channel achieves that. Thanks and Merry Christmas Darcy
The consistent quality of your videos is such a joy my guy
Backyard naturalist is always an end to end watch
The “I can’t believe it’s not A Current Affair” got a laugh out of me. So glad I don’t watch broadcast television these days, it’s garbage.
Wowzers
Top tier music choices as always!
Great video thank you Backyard Naturalist - these guys need all the champions they can get.💚🦇
Thanks
Cheers!
Excellent work. Never knew the impact of these featherless flying friends. Thank you for teaching us all in such an entertaining video.
Another one in the bag for the backyard naturist. I think the reason why this video is important is because it allows the viewer to be spoon-fed information on these random animals, and I have to say, I love the taste 👄.
Beethoven’s 7th AND flying foxes. What a treat!
I used to live in the inner Melbourne area, and it was always a treat seeing the flying foxes flying overhead, either watching them from home, or as I was driving back home, in their thousands.
And I agree, go check out your local colony at night. Despite all the noise they make in their roosting area, they're incredibly silent flying overhead in their thousands.
One of your best videos so far
Those videos of huge swarms of fruit bats are amazing.
They haven't been mega-bats in Adelaide for very long so never seen those numbers.
Fantastic! Thank you! Great work …. Except for the Adelaide swipe, come on!
It was gold!! (Love you, Adelaide, you under-rated capital)
Such beautiful creatures. They have such a cute face. I remember having one climbing over me when I was a kid and Mum was a member of WIRES
I love these guys- my partner and I refer to them as sky puppies. Thanks for another great and informative video!
We don't have the pleasure of megabats in Perth, but I lived in Broome for a while and remember seeing them fly over town one evening. They just kept coming, it was like they were infinite. And they were completely silent - a big change from the "I'm being murdered" screaming from them while they roost in the mangroves.
Thank-you for going into bat for the bats! They are wonderful creatures. It's just magic if you're honoured enough to have a few roost in your garden when the trees are in bloom.
Throwing shade at Adelaide was too cold 😂🦇
The use of 'Marble Gallery' as the first piece of music got me wondering if they can wing smash.
Here in Newcastle with the Hunter Wetlands in close proximity they are a common sight and squeak away happily in the trees at night.
And anything that eats those noisy cicadas gets my vote.
I’m glad someone actually brought more awareness to the importance of flying foxes and how we are endangering them. Really we just have to figure out a way to stop destroying their habitat….
When my partner and I visited QLD I was SO surprised by how many of these beautiful beasties we'd see! I knew there were more flying foxes on the east coast but wasn't expecting to see as many as I did. Watching them at sunset was wonderful.
I'm actually surprised to learn that the grey-headed flying fox range reaches down to Vic's south coast, I'd have assumed it gets too cold and windy down here for them! Awesome video as always, I also really liked how you were factual and to the point about disease risk too.
Thank you for another really informative post. I look forward to your posts and learn heaps from them. Wishing you and all your family a very happy festive season. 🎄
Dude this is crazy... I literally went down a rabbit hole last night on flying foxes cause I keep seeing them dive bomb into neighborhood trees, thank you for talking about these fine creatures
amazing video! (as are all of the ones you make!) however it wouldve been great to also mention flying fox paralysis syndrome (FFPS) which has affected our wonderful flying friends over the past few years very similarly to lorikeets!
keep up the great content!!
As usual, amazing content.
Onya Backyard Naturalist, thanks for an informative video about last little understood group of animals we all need for survival.
the camp along the Yarra is my go-to spot to take out-of-town visitors or dates!! i love my local flying foxes.
"we're not being very hospitable to our guests" let's be real, we moved in to their territory, and we're not being very kind to our hosts
I've always been fascinated by the mega bats of Pteropodidae, specifically down under's flying foxes. Im glad you're shining the spotlight on the Aussie fruit flappers 🦇💚
Best channel on UA-cam……love you Darcy 🐨🐨🐨
I grew up in Bundaberg. I remember instances of people trying to move on the bat colonies. Between them and the rainbow lorikeets in the CBD, your car is bound to get 💩 on it but hey, they're such amazing creatures.
I love watching the flying foxes flying over my place in late spring and into summer at sunset.
Its not as common to see them in WA so it was a bit of a shock when i moved to VIC and saw so many
Heading to Brissy for the first time as a person from Perth was truly wild. We only have sparse small bat species in Perth so it was the first time I ever saw the flying foxes in the wild. It was like the white cockatoo flocks we have at dusk here! Very cool!
the first video I watched was the common Australian plants video, I love this channel
“Batatonic” 😂
Thankyou
I once left my car overnight under a bat camp in North QLD. Needless to say, I did not make that mistake again.
Another brilliant vid. Thanks man.
thanks for another great vid, keep doing what you do!
I love them. We have a couple of camps up here in Maryborough QLD, including a small one up the back of my yard. I leave the fruit on my loquat for them and plenty of water around (I help the birds too, particularly my maggie families). Watching them fly around at sunset is just mesmerising. We need to stop thinking like the US; like everything is a threat and realise Elon is more likely to end us than save us and just embrace our natural environment.
I appreciate the Castlevania music playing in this my guy!
The Big Fat Question Mark Era in Australian history. Should be taught in schools.
amazing video, also love the castlevania music choice
Yet another glorious video from the Backyard Naturalist. Could not agree more about flying foxes. Bats in general. Let us hope for a new year of better appreciation going out to our indispensable mega bats! Now that's a phrase I never thought I would use.
Well done on the video. Lots of very interesting facts about the flying foxes we complain about because they stink and are noisy. I remember reading recently they poop out some seeds to populate trees that no other bird does. So very important to the eco system. It made me appreciate them.
The Castlevania music sneak for the megabats episode
Love the video as always brother. informative and funny.
Thank you for this awesome video. I love fruit bats! I love going to Yarra Bend to see them, they're so fascinating and so impressive en masse!
I've seen them all lining the banks in their thousands at Yarra Bend - a memorable day, not least because it was right after watching Neil Gaiman present Niall Doran's Sixteen Legs, a doco about spiders that included newly discovered details about spider sex 😄
I LOVE bats! Living in Perth, we don't have so many... It's good to hear they persist, even if they're taking a hit ATM.
Thank you so much for going in to bat for our bats. ❤
Thank you! Hope the megabats in QLD are doing okay
Brilliant. Love the flying foxes. I live in a small east coast rural town and we have 2 camps here.. both by the river… I feel like if they are here in huge numbers, we must be doing something right.
Their little faces always reminded me of a Jack Russell.
This is one of my fav channels, idk how I missed this vid. I recently had flying foxes in my backyard every night and they ate all the apricots from my apricot tree, so I do not like them. But I like this video so I forgive them.
It was probably the guys @ 10:25
Best video yet mate. Brilliant work!
11:58 Minor correction: "We're not be very hospitable guests to our hosts"