{"id":116864,"date":"2025-11-04T05:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T05:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116864\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T05:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T05:01:08","slug":"almost-120-flying-foxes-hospitalised-after-giant-hail-smashes-queensland-colony-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116864\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 120 flying foxes hospitalised after giant hail smashes Queensland colony | Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a severe hailstorm hit the tiny Queensland<\/a> township of Esk on the weekend, it wasn\u2019t just people ducking for cover.<\/p>\n

Almost 120 flying foxes were injured, some critically, before being rescued by volunteers and admitted to the RSPCA wildlife hospital in Wacol, in Brisbane\u2019s south-west.<\/p>\n

The hail storm injured a mixture of juvenile and adult black, little red and grey-headed flying foxes, with around 60 bat pups being orphaned on Saturday night, the RSPCA said.<\/p>\n

They were seen by a carer who specialises in pups and triaged, before being warmed up and given fluids.<\/p>\n

Esk local David Zammit works for the RSPCA animal rescue department. He said when the hailstorm hit, a Bat Conservation and Rescue Queensland (BCRQ) group sent people to check on the local colony. They found bats on the ground and in trees with severe injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cBCRQ in conjunction with other wildlife carers who are all vaccinated [against Australian bat lyssavirus] \u2026 started rescuing the bats that were on the ground,\u201d Zammit said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe injuries varied, but it was mostly from the impact of the hail. Anything that was small, like a bat or a bird, would have copped it pretty badly from the hail. What we saw were faces that were smashed, some broken wings, and also a number of orphans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zammit said the rescued flying foxes were all taken to the Wacol hospital to be assessed by RSPCA veterinarians.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology said days of severe thunderstorm activity had impacted the east coast of central and southern Queensland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe storm activity increased on Saturday with damaging and dangerous storms through the weekend and Monday,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMultiple severe thunderstorm warnings were issued each day. The activity was more widespread on Saturday. Many storms brought the risk of high-end weather hazards, including intense rainfall and flooding, damaging and destructive wind, and giant hail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bureau said giant hailstones up to 10cm in diameter \u2013 ranging from golf ball-sized to larger than a cricket ball \u2013 were reported in numerous locations each day.<\/p>\n

The RSPCA said if people found sick, injured or orphaned bats, they should never try to touch or rescue them. Instead, contact your nearest wildlife rescue organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a severe hailstorm hit the tiny Queensland township of Esk on the weekend, it wasn\u2019t just people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-116864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}