![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792412293_311_7f32a709f91e1faa66bfacda80bb777543e07dcb3c4d95605354f4af55bc5de3.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
October 19, 2026 \u2014 6:45pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Distressed, hot and hungry bats should be reported to expert wildlife carers and definitely not handled, as food shortages and increasing heat put pressure on colonies around Sydney.<\/p>\n Thousands of grey-headed flying foxes are suffering from starvation after a dry winter affected their primary food source, native tree blossoms and nectar. The looming summer threatens to worsen the impact.<\/p>\n Greater Sydney Parklands \u2013 a government agency which manages some of the city\u2019s largest and well-known parks, including Centennial Parklands in Sydney\u2019s east, along with Parramatta Park and Western Sydney Parklands \u2013 issued its warning on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to remind park goers that if they see a distressed bat they should never handle it because they can scratch and bite,\u201d the agency\u2019s environmental and sustainability officer Amara Glynn said.<\/p>\n Sightings of distressed or injured bats should instead be referred to the Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) or Sydney Wildlife Rescue.<\/p>\n \u201cCarers who are trained and prepared can come and tend to these bats,\u201d Glynn said.<\/p>\n More than 40,000 bats have been spotted around Lachlan Swamp in Centennial Parklands, making it home to one of the largest colonies of grey-headed flying foxes in the city according to Greater Sydney Parklands. Parramatta Park is thought to be home to between 5000 and 10,000 of the bats.<\/p>\n In the south-west Sydney suburb of Harrington Park, about 50,000 bats colonised an area along Narellan Creek in June<\/a> , according to the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, frustrating residents.<\/p>\n Research earlier this year estimated grey-headed flying foxes could contribute close to $1 billion to the nation\u2019s timber industry<\/a>, planting about 91 million trees each year by dispersing seeds and pollinating flowers.<\/p>\n The vulnerable species, which live predominantly along the coast east of the Great Dividing Range, are the largest bats in Australia.<\/p>\n They typically feed on blossoms and nectar from native trees, but a drier than usual winter and poor seasonal flowering of eucalypts and other native flora are believed to be leaving bats hungry.<\/p>\n WIRES warned earlier in October the starvation event was driving increased reports of unusual behaviour and malnourishment in flying foxes.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re eating off the ground, drinking water from the grass after the rain, and hanging too low in trees,\u201d WIRES said.<\/p>\n Rescues and deaths have increased and bats have been seen roosting in fruit trees instead of returning to their colonies, Greater Sydney Parklands said.<\/p>\n Summer could force the closure of some parts of the Greater Sydney Parklands estate as the heat increases.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring periods of extreme heat, particularly when temperatures exceed 42 degrees, grey-headed flying fox colonies are at significant risk of heat stress death, so we will be closing our colony sites to the public when this happens,\u201d Glynn said.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close![\"Grey-headed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3b0ab05a9486070509527641dac0ab2ddefe38e27c97819598564022bebd7d89.jpeg\")
Grey-headed flying foxes are listed as a vulnerable species.Sally Hinton<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/24b717bf8318200fbfb12bc7e98c9568e8c884de.jpeg\")
A bat colony on Sydney\u2019s lower north shore.Dean Sewell<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/48826737d7fdf74648d9f972627da566654e933a.jpeg\")
The flying fox colony that boomed along Narellan Creek in Harrington Park in June.Janie Barrett<\/p>\n![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792412297_603_7f32a709f91e1faa66bfacda80bb777543e07dcb3c4d95605354f4af55bc5de3.png\")
Jack Gramenz<\/a> is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 19, 2026 \u2014 6:45pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-933729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}