Gold Coast Bats.
Also refered to
as flying foxes, fruit bats, macro bats and micro bats.
Bats can be seen like rivers in the sky at dusk in the summer months. Huge colonies of fruit bats fly over the Gold Coast daily from North to South migrating to feeding grounds.
For short periods during the summer months we have a few bats visiting our native fig tree in our back yard. Their arrival is heralded by the ruckus they make, somehow it all seems to fit with the chorus of croaking frogs and the occasional hoarse growl from a Koala.
if you ever come across an injured or trapped bat call for assistance from the volunteer rescue organization [see link below], DO NOT try and handle it yourself. Contact to a break in your skin with a bat's saliva can transfer the potentially deadly lyssavirus to humans.
In case of a bat bite or scratch you should first wash the wound with soap and running water, apply some antiseptic, and then attend a health facility for review, which will involve immunisation.
There's only been two cases of lyssavirus in Australia, and both those cases have been fatal.
Bats can live up to 30 years in ideal situations.
These much maligned creatures are vital to the sustainability of our surrounding forrests. South East Queensland has a flying- fox and microbat volunteer rescue and care organization, dedicated to education and bat conservation.
Locals of the Gold Coast are encouraged to submit their own stories, to be published in the "FolkLore" section of the site.
Should you have any questions about the Gold Coast not covered within this site or how to submit your story, please contact Kitty via the "About Us" page.
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