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Several endangered flying foxes have been discovered shot and bashed to death in separate incidents across regional Victoria.
Key points:
- Six dead grey-headed flying foxes have been found shot and with broken bones in Victoria's Gippsland
- In a separate incident a mother and daughter witnessed a bat beaten to death at a private residence
- Bohollow Wildlife Shelter has blamed the incidents on the public's perception of bats as "diseased" when in fact they play a crucial role in the ecosystem as pollinators
WARNING: This story contains graphic images
On Friday, six grey-headed flying foxes were found with gunshot wounds on the side of a road, about 1 kilometre from Bairnsdale in the state's Gippsland region.
In a second incident at Tatura in the Goulburn Valley on the weekend, a bat was beaten to death after being caught in a fruit tree net.
Wildlife Victoria has reported a spike in brutality towards the bats, which are relying on fruit trees for food after catastrophic bushfires over summer devastated their habitat.
It comes after more than 2,000 flying foxes died from heat stress last month in eastern Victoria, destroying a suspected third of the local flying fox population.
Across the country, it has been estimated that about 100,000 bats perished during the bushfire season as a result of heat, fires and drought.
'Extremely cruel act'
Megan Davidson, chief executive of Wildlife Victoria, said the bats discovered near Bairnsdale on Friday still had fruit in their mouths.
She said the animals appeared to have been shot and had broken bones.
"They were killed while they were just trying to eat to survive," Dr Davidson said.
"This is an extremely cruel act and I think the community would be shocked to think someone is going around killing wildlife.
"We lost 1 billion animals in the fires. Every animal that we have is important."
In Tatura, a mother and daughter were reportedly left traumatised after they witnessed the second bat killing at a private residence, which has been reported to police.
The incident occurred not far from Cussen Park, where hundreds of flying foxes congregate each year, often prompting a closure of the area.
It is estimated about 250 bats reside at the park from February to May, but the number may have increased after bats flocked to the unburnt land in search for food.
People 'go out of their way' to disturb bats
Kirsty Ramadan, who operates the Bohollow Wildlife Shelter in the Goulburn Valley, says she has seen bats with horrific injuries from barbed wire and fruit netting.
She said she hoped stronger varieties of bats would adapt to hotter weather in the future.
"We've had a lot of trouble in Numurkah with people disturbing them on high temperature days, which can make the difference between life and death," Ms Ramadan said.
"People go out of their way to make noise, bang drums and make them take flight, when they're obviously extremely heat stressed."
She said the public misconception towards bats needed to change.
"There's a lot of fear-mongering about viruses," Ms Ramadan said.
"People think bats are diseased, they don't like the noise, [and] they say they smell, but they perform an important and vital role in our environment for pollination."
Crucial to the environment
Fruit Growers Victoria director, Gary Godwill, said growers had not reported an increase in bats eating their crops.
He says the animals may become an issue if the they do not have enough native food to forage on.
"[The bats] will attack fruit crops and that's when it becomes a problem for us," Mr Godwill said.
"How we'd actually keep them out is beyond me."
He said the issue was not just that bats ate growers' crops, but that they defecated on the fruit.
"The biggest problem I see with flying foxes is [their impact] on deciduous fruit," Mr Godwill said.
"They become soured and they soil more fruit than what they actually eat."
Dr Davidson said the species were crucial to the environment in their role as long-distance pollinators.
"These are animals that will help rebuild our forests and keep them healthy," she said.
"They are endangered, their numbers have declined by more than 95 per cent in the last 100 years, and we're not sure that they will survive in the long-term.
"We need to take care of them, or we're going to lose them."
Topics: endangered-and-protected-species, animal-welfare, animals, environment, human-interest, tatura-3616, numurkah-3636, bairnsdale-3875