This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Once again, Australia's flying-foxes are in trouble. Wildlife caregivers have been overwhelmed by large numbers of distressed animals needing care.
Banana and berry growers are reporting crop damage and sightings of weakened bats. New South Wales and eastern Victoria are the areas currently affected. Gray-headed flying-foxes seem to be the worst-affected species.
The most likely cause is a food shortage. Australia had a very warm winter, which may have changed the flowering patterns of some trees and led to a nectar shortage. This isn't yet confirmed, as investigations are continuing.
Unfortunately, this is only the latest in a string of mass deaths of flying-foxes, the world's largest flying mammals. Over the 2019–20 Black Summer, extreme heat claimed tens of thousands, and thousands more died from the same cause over the 2025–26 summer. Climate change is steadily making their lives harder.
Australia is poorly placed to respond to wildlife emergencies affecting these important, highly mobile bats. In 2016, land managers, researchers, conservationists and industry backed a national approach to managing flying-foxes. A decade later, there's still no sign of change.
Many Australians call flying-foxes "fruit bats." But gray-headed flying-foxes actually prefer eucalypt nectar and pollen over cultivated fruit. They turn to orchards only when their preferred foods are scarce. Eucalypt flowering is highly variable.
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