Bats in Brisbane

Batty Facts:

• Flying-foxes or fruit bats are essential for our Australian forest health—through distance pollination and seed dispersal they are true forest makers. While everyone sleeps—flying-foxes make forests!
• Flying-foxes can live up to 25 years, weigh up to 1kg, with a 1.2 m wing span and fly at approx. 25km/hr.
• Bats are the only mammal capable of sustained flight
• There are over 1000 species of bats in the world and ninety of these are found in Australia
• Bats are economically important for eliminating agricultural insect pests and for their role in pollinating commercial plants such as bananas, dates, figs, mangoes jackfruit, durian, cashews and more.



• Some microbats can consume their own body weight in pest insects in one night e.g. flying termites, cockroaches, lawn grub moths, disease carrying mosquitoes and midges.
• Without microbats our use of chemicals increase which in turn affects human health and economies and can seriously effect whole ecosystems.
• Vampire bats are only found in Central and South America, they only weigh 35 gms. Anticoagulant from their saliva may soon be used to treat human heart conditions.
• Bats around the world and in Australia are in decline, mostly due to loss of foraging habitat, loss of safe roosts and a poor understanding of their worth
• Bats have a long gestation period compared to other animals of comparable size and rarely give birth to more than one young
• All bats are protected by law but their survival is not assured.

Help us preserve them

• If you would like to help Bat Care Brisbane by becoming a member please visit the membership page.
• Sponsor an orphan or an education flying-fox.
• If you would like to make a donation to Bat Care Brisbane you can make a direct deposit into our account – these donations are greatly appreciated.
• Plant native trees and bushes for bats and other wildlife.
• Remove hazards from your environment, such as barbed wire, unsafe netting and Cocos palms.
• Put up a Microbat box at your house.
• Report any injured bats, and if possible take precautions to minimize their stress and prevent contact between the bat and humans or other animals.
• Encourage people to find out the facts about bats.