Conventional wisdom on roosting behaviour of Australian flying foxes -
a critical review, and evaluation using new data
Abstract
1. Fruit bats (Family: Pteropodidae) are animals of great ecological and
economic importance, yet their populations are threatened by ongoing
habitat loss and human persecution. A lack of ecological knowledge for
the vast majority of Pteropodid bat species presents additional
challenges for their conservation and management. 2. In Australia,
populations of flying-fox species (Genus: Pteropus) are declining and
management approaches are highly contentious. Australian flying-fox
roosts are exposed to management regimes involving habitat modification,
either through human-wildlife conflict management policies, or
vegetation restoration programs. Details on the fine-scale roosting
ecology of flying-foxes are not sufficiently known to provide
evidence-based guidance for these regimes and the impact on flying-foxes
of these habitat modifications is poorly understood. 3. We seek to
identify and test commonly held understandings about the roosting
ecology of Australian flying-foxes to inform practical recommendations
and guide and refine management practices at flying-fox roosts. 4. We
identify 31 statements relevant to understanding of flying-fox roosting
structure, and synthesise these in the context of existing literature.
We then contribute contemporary data on the fine-scale roosting
structure of flying-fox species in south-eastern Queensland and
north-eastern New South Wales, presenting a 13-month dataset from 2,522
spatially referenced roost trees across eight sites. 5. We show evidence
of sympatry and indirect competition between species, including spatial
segregation of black and grey-headed flying-foxes within roosts and
seasonal displacement of both species by little red flying-foxes. We
demonstrate roost-specific annual trends in occupancy and abundance and
provide updated demographic information including the spatial and
temporal distributions of males and females within roosts. 6. Insights
from our systematic and quantitative study will be important to guide
evidence-based recommendations on restoration and management and will be
crucial for the implementation of priority recovery actions for the
preservation of these species into the future.