Our night gardeners: flying-foxes
Restoring the Big Scrub for its night gardeners
As the sun sets, flying-foxes stream from their camps into the forest. They're looking for blossom, nectar and fruit. And without meaning to, they're planting rainforest. A single flying-fox can spread up to 60,000 seeds across a 50-kilometre stretch of land in one night. That matters, because the seeds of many rainforest trees only germinate once they've been carried away from the parent tree. As they feed, flying-foxes carry pollen from flower to flower too.
The flying-foxes of the far north, the Spectacled flying-fox. Image: David White
They're the night gardeners of the rainforest. This spring, they're in trouble.
A hungry spring
Wildlife rescuers across New South Wales, from the Northern Rivers to the south coast, and in parts of Victoria are being called to starving flying-foxes. Exhausted adults. Pups born too early to survive. Most are Grey-headed Flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus), a species already listed as vulnerable nationally.
Spectacled flying-fox (Pteropus conspicullatus). Image: David White
WIRES says habitat loss, a dry winter and poor flowering of eucalypts and other native trees are the likely causes, though the NSW Government says the exact cause isn't confirmed. To every wildlife carer answering those calls: thank you.
The part we can change
We can't make it rain, or make flowers flower on cue. But habitat loss is something we can turn around. The Big Scrub once covered 75,000 hectares of lowland subtropical rainforest across the Northern Rivers. Just 1% remains. Flying-foxes feed on the fruit of rainforest trees and vines, so every patch that grows back means more food, more shelter and more places for seeds to land.
Tuesday mornings at the nursery
That growing back starts with people. Every Tuesday morning, volunteers gather at the Gondwana Rainforest Nursery, in the Byron Bay hinterland. Together they collect seed, tend seedlings, weed, mulch, plant and survey the birds that visit.
It's practical, hands-in-the-soil work. And it's where the next generation of Big Scrub rainforest gets its start.
What your support grows
Volunteers bring their hands. Supporters like you make sure there's rainforest for those hands to restore.
Community tree planting in the Big Scrub region.
Because of you, more than 225,000 trees have been established across the Daintree and Northern NSW, helping rainforest return to land that was once cleared. Further north, your gifts help purchase and protect Daintree Lowland Rainforest, home to the endangered Spectacled Flying-fox. Rainforest is strongest when it's connected. Flying-foxes travel long distances each night, and every restored patch gives them somewhere to feed along the way.
How you can help today
- Found a flying-fox on the ground, caught in netting, or a pup on its own? Please don't touch it. Only trained rescuers should handle bats. Call your local wildlife rescue group.
- Join us on a Tuesday. Register your interest in nursery volunteering, and we'll be in touch.
- Help restore the Big Scrub. Your gift helps grow back the rainforest flying-foxes depend on, for this generation and the next. You can also give monthly and become part of a community restoring rainforest every month.