Mango Madness at the Drive-Thru

 I adore fruit bats. Really, I do. These mammals with their cute little faces and gorgeous brown eyes are nature's little gardeners who spread their seeds far and wide and help pollinate more than 100 species of native trees.

Flying-foxes spread the pollen of valuable plants as they feed, so they play an important role in our environment. Some plants even rely on flying-foxes to pollinate their species.

~ Wildlife Preservation Society of Qld

 We need these noisy, furry, flying gardeners to help our environment flourish and although grey-headed flying foxes are listed as vulnerable, and I'm optimistic we can help get their numbers back up.

Grey-headed flying fox colony, Lowood Queensland

 Grey-headed flying foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) shown above, are also known as fruit bats or megabats and are a warm-blooded mammal native to Australia. They're also our largest bats.

 The bat image was taken mid-afternoon and the colony quiet, except for the occasional squabble, screech, scream, and yoga wing stretch.

 Speaking of yoga wing stretch, it was interesting to watch them stretch their wings (around 1 metre or 3.3 feet across), then wrap themselves up again. For some reason, this reminded me of stuffed cabbage leaves.

 But, they're not always at their roost 😉 

 Last week I decided to stop by the golden arches for a flat white with soy (love their coffee). After parking my car I came across this smelly, half-eaten mess of mango mush around the bottom of the mango tree shown below.

Anyone for mango smoothies in the drive-thru?

 The noise level of bats in a feeding frenzy must've been loud, and I'm grateful I wasn't around to experience that, or half-eaten mangoes dropping from the sky onto the car park, cars or patrons for that matter.  

 I imagine with their bellies full they flew home leaving a trail of guano in their wake, and people below saying not very nice things about them.

 Did you know guano as manure contains the 3 big ones of fertilizer - nitrogen, phosphate and potassium? Good news if you want to fertilize your garden, bad news if it lands on your washing or car.

 At dusk, flying foxes leave their roost with great fanfare in search of nectar, pollen, and fruit. Here at the drive-thru, it was mangoes all the way baby.

Mango mess in the car park

  If you're new to living in an area where bats frequent, here are a couple of tips:

• get your washing in before sunset
• cover your car
• cover your outdoor furniture
• if you make noise, they'll make noise
• only use wildlife safe netting for your fruit tree
• leave town (kidding haha)

 I've learned much about our ecosystem through photography and researching my subject matter, and know this will continue. Personally, I'm a huge flying fox fan, not just because I think they're cute, but also because they're vitally important to the ecosystem. If you happen to live near a colony I empathise with you, they're a noisy, smelly bunch. But they're still cute 😁

 On a recent country drive, I noticed netting over fruit trees with some fruit left poking out. Presumably, this is a deliberate act enabling birds and bats to have something to eat - well that's what I like to believe. After Australia's horrific fire season there's a food shortage living in fire-affected areas (another reason for food shortage is urbanisation - just saying). So kudos to everyone who looks out for these creatures.

 Till next post, stay cool friends, now it's time for a flat white with soy 😁