By Lawrence Pope
President: Friends of Bats & Bushcare Inc.
Each twilight along Broome’s Roebuck Bay mangroves around 75,000 native Black flying foxes, and a few Little Red flying foxes, wake up, have a chat and then head out en-mass to search for their vegetarian breakfast. It is the largest collection of wildlife on the Broome peninsular.
The fly-out as seen from the Roebuck Bay lookout at Dampier Tce or Streeter`s Jetty pre-dates humanity by eons and is, I think, one of the most memorable Broome experiences and something to savour.
October is a special time of year for Broome’s Black flying foxes. Every female of reproductive age will either give birth or be carrying her single baby.
The pups hang onto mum 24/7 for the first month in their lives. She will clean, groom and breast feed her baby throughout the day. At night the pup will cling to her underbelly attached to a nipple at one end and by its large feet at the other.
They become distressed if they lose contact with the nipple as a fall from mum often means death (dummies are a necessity when caring for orphan bat pups – pictured).**
Remember to look up at fly-out time and if you see a bat with what looks like a bomb fixed underneath, it’s her bubby.
The pup is feed by mum for up to five months before it joins other juveniles and becomes independent. (Juveniles and “teenage” bats can often be heard squabbling and play fighting during the day when most adults are sound asleep – why sleep when you could be talking?)
Even then it will return to her for a supplementary feed while learning to forage successfully for its diet of nectar, pollen and fruit.
Broome mixed colony of Black flying foxes and Little Red flying foxes can number over one hundred thousand animals. Each bat will visit ten trees or more every night. That’s a million trees and shrubs being “serviced” by pollination and having their seeds dispersed every night – they are engines of biodiversity regenerating the landscape. It’s a job they’ve been doing here for millions of years.
As well as the flying foxes also keep an eye-out for one of the regions twenty-two species of microbats (about sparrow size or smaller) hunting for mozzies and other bugs.*
*Remember to apply insect repellent and never go into the mangroves without a local indigenous guide/tour e.g. Narlijia Tours with Bart Pigram.
** Bats should never be disturbed at their daytime roost/camp. They can drop their pup and need to rest and sleep. There is also risk of accidental bite or scratch.