Post by Sharon Faulkner on Jul 25, 2006 8:00:22 GMT -5
bat man's work never ends
LIZ McKINNON
July 25, 2006
BENEATH Warrnambool's coastal cliffs a colony of threatened southern bent-wing bats is attempting to rebuild its population.
About 10,000 bats live in the darkness of the Starlight Cave. The population has been in a century-long struggle against human interference that reduced breeding colonies to just two known locations in Australia. One colony is at Warrnambool and the other is at the Naracoorte Caves in South Australia. Cave destruction, mining of bat faeces and killings have taken a toll on the highly sensitive populations.
Warrnambool Deakin University biologist and PhD student Chris Grant has made a career out of scaling Warrnambool's dangerous cliff tops to visit the remote cave where he maintains a watchful eye on the dwindling species. Mr Grant said he was drawn to the colony because _ unlike other Australian endangered animals _ it received no funded support.
However, funding was available to cull nuisance populations. Many years ago there was a colony in a cave near Thunder Point, but Warrnambool City Council destroyed the site out of fears for public safety, Mr Grant said.
Visitors to the bats' environment have to be extremely quiet because even the slightest noise or flash of light could wake the creatures and cause starvation from shock . "Our biggest problem today is people visiting the caves and being disruptive,'' he said. "There was a rope and lots of footprints going down so I suspect people are coming down here every week. The path down the bottom is well worn.''
Mr Grant said little work had been done to explain why the population had declined. "The Naracoorte population has dropped from 150,000 to 30,000 since the 1960s,'' he said. "That is an enormous decline and it is why I started my research. "I want to know what is threatening the survival of the species and to ensure reliable monitoring is done. We are down to two breeding caves after earlier having five. We just have to get the message out there otherwise we could risk losing the species forever.''
Mr Grant has painstakingly counted the bat population with video cameras and radio-tracked their movements. He also uses a bat call detection device to pick up the ultrasonic noise made by each bat. Mr Grant said the piles of faeces in the Warrnambool cave were fodder for fertiliser miners in the 1800s before commercial fertilisers were manufactured. "Mining was really destructive but we really don't know what happened at the time _ people didn't make records,'' he said. "In most caves, for extraction, they knocked holes in the roof and just lowered buckets down which pretty well wrecked the cave for breeding purposes. The bats can't handle the increased ventilation, they need the heat.''
Mr Grant is preparing to write his thesis on the population but the money has run out to continue the monitoring task.
the.standard.net.au/articles/2006/07/25/1153746828415.html
LIZ McKINNON
July 25, 2006
BENEATH Warrnambool's coastal cliffs a colony of threatened southern bent-wing bats is attempting to rebuild its population.
About 10,000 bats live in the darkness of the Starlight Cave. The population has been in a century-long struggle against human interference that reduced breeding colonies to just two known locations in Australia. One colony is at Warrnambool and the other is at the Naracoorte Caves in South Australia. Cave destruction, mining of bat faeces and killings have taken a toll on the highly sensitive populations.
Warrnambool Deakin University biologist and PhD student Chris Grant has made a career out of scaling Warrnambool's dangerous cliff tops to visit the remote cave where he maintains a watchful eye on the dwindling species. Mr Grant said he was drawn to the colony because _ unlike other Australian endangered animals _ it received no funded support.
However, funding was available to cull nuisance populations. Many years ago there was a colony in a cave near Thunder Point, but Warrnambool City Council destroyed the site out of fears for public safety, Mr Grant said.
Visitors to the bats' environment have to be extremely quiet because even the slightest noise or flash of light could wake the creatures and cause starvation from shock . "Our biggest problem today is people visiting the caves and being disruptive,'' he said. "There was a rope and lots of footprints going down so I suspect people are coming down here every week. The path down the bottom is well worn.''
Mr Grant said little work had been done to explain why the population had declined. "The Naracoorte population has dropped from 150,000 to 30,000 since the 1960s,'' he said. "That is an enormous decline and it is why I started my research. "I want to know what is threatening the survival of the species and to ensure reliable monitoring is done. We are down to two breeding caves after earlier having five. We just have to get the message out there otherwise we could risk losing the species forever.''
Mr Grant has painstakingly counted the bat population with video cameras and radio-tracked their movements. He also uses a bat call detection device to pick up the ultrasonic noise made by each bat. Mr Grant said the piles of faeces in the Warrnambool cave were fodder for fertiliser miners in the 1800s before commercial fertilisers were manufactured. "Mining was really destructive but we really don't know what happened at the time _ people didn't make records,'' he said. "In most caves, for extraction, they knocked holes in the roof and just lowered buckets down which pretty well wrecked the cave for breeding purposes. The bats can't handle the increased ventilation, they need the heat.''
Mr Grant is preparing to write his thesis on the population but the money has run out to continue the monitoring task.
the.standard.net.au/articles/2006/07/25/1153746828415.html