Flying-foxes are starving. Why are we still responding one crisis at a time?

Once again, Australia's flying-foxes are facing a crisis. Wildlife carers are struggling to care for the large numbers of distressed animals in need of assistance. Crop damage is reported by banana and berry growers, and weakened bats are being spotted. New South Wales and eastern Victoria are currently the affected areas. Grey-headed flying-foxes appear to be the most severely impacted species.

The likely cause is a food shortage, as Australia experienced a very warm winter, potentially altering the flowering patterns of some trees and leading to a nectar shortage. However, this has not been confirmed due to ongoing investigations. This is not the first such mass death event for flying-foxes, which are the world's largest flying mammals.

In the 2019-20 Black Summer, extreme heat caused tens of thousands of deaths, and thousands more died from the same cause during the 2025-26 summer. Climate change is progressively making their lives more challenging. Despite being well-positioned to address wildlife emergencies affecting these essential, highly mobile bats, Australia's response remains inadequate.

In 2016, land managers, researchers, conservationists, and industry agreed on a national approach to managing flying-foxes. Yet, a decade later, no progress has been made. A forest is not a supermarket. While many Australians refer to flying-foxes as "fruit bats," these grey-headed flying-foxes actually prefer eucalypt nectar and pollen over cultivated fruit, turning to orchards only when their preferred foods are scarce.

Eucalypt flowering is highly variable, with forests abundant in flowering gums one month and lacking the next. Flying-foxes are adept at locating these ephemeral food sources, but food is not always available in a drought-prone and flood-prone land. Flying-foxes have long encountered food shortages, with researchers documenting recurrent shortages from 1996 to 2020, as well as shifts in distribution and increased reliance on agricultural and urban areas.

Land clearing and urban expansion have eliminated much of southeast Queensland's native winter-flowering habitat, making winter nectar harder to find. Supporting, protecting, and restoring native food trees would help sustain the irreplaceable role of flying-foxes as long-distance pollinators and seed dispersers, benefiting the economy and reducing the risk of disease transmission.