Long‐distance movements of the grey‐headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)

Abstract

The grey-headed flying fox Pteropus poliocephalus, a nationally vulnerable species, is endemic to coastal eastern Australia, from Maryborough, Queensland , through New South Wales to Melbourne, Victoria. Pteropus poliocephalus forages at night, primarily on eucalypt blossom within 50 km of traditional camps (day roosts), usually in dense, riparian vegetation. Several attempts have been made to track long-distance movements of P. poliocephalus across its extensive and climatically highly variable range, but the technology has been inadequate for tracking at the required speed and scale. Satellite tracking was used to monitor movements of a 2-year-old male P. poliocephalus, trapped at the Currie Park camp in the north of the species' range (28 • 48 S) from January 2000, and another from its most southerly camp, Melbourne (37 • 50 S), from April 2000. The first flying fox moved camp 50 km noth-east to Dallas Park, where it stayed until March, then transited at least 15 other camps between 28 • 12 -32 • 44 S, before returning to Dallas Park in September. The second flying fox remained in Melbourne until July, then transited at least six other camps to 33 • 44 S, before returning to Melbourne in January 2001. Both animals made round trips of at least 2000 km, traversing > 4 • latitude, before returning to their camps of origin, while other animals remained. The study suggests that P. poliocephalus is a partial migrant that uses winds to facilitate long-distance movements, and underlines the importance of management at a national scale.

Urban habituation, ecological connectivity and epidemic dampening: the emergence of Hendra virus from flying foxes (Pteropusspp.)

“…nutritional stress or pregnancy; [21]), the risk of spill-over from intense but infrequent epidemics may be enhanced. Although the fact that 10 out of 14 HeV outbreak sites were near continuously occupied flying fox camps, which we assume contain non-migratory animals ( [16,36,61] [62,63]), and the sporadic nature of HeV outbreaks could be explained by wave-like spatiotemporal behaviour. Our models show that epidemic waves of HeV, sparked by urban epidemics and travelling progressively through non-urban populations, are a possible consequence of changing flying fox spatial population structure.…”

“…Qualitative assessments of long-term changes to flying fox populations were obtained by comparing historic literature [48][49][50] to current assessments [26][27][28][29]31] and expert opinion. Connectivity estimates from radio and satellite telemetry studies of P. poliocephalus [15,36] and radio telemetry studies of P. alecto [51,52] differed substantially, hence, we explored HeV dynamics over the entire range of the connectivity parameter, c, for which simulations persisted (see the electronic supplementary material, methods).…”

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

“…Nocturnal foraging may involve round trips of up to 50 km, though most foraging activity occurs within a 20 km radius (or less) of the daytime roost (Eby 1991; Tidemann 1999). Individual bats have been shown to make periodic movements of at least 2000 km, covering more than 4 degrees of latitude over the course of several months (Tidemann and Nelson 2004). Despite a capacity to forage over large distances, the phenology of key food trees imposes annual periods of significant food shortage, especially in late winter or early spring (Law et al 2002).…”

“…Eby (1991), Parry-Jones and Augee (1991), Tidemann and Nelson (2004), McDonald-Madden et al (2005), Parris and Hazell (2005), and Williams et al (2006) documented aspects of P. poliocephalus ecology. Eby (1991) and Parry-Jones and Augee (2001) focused on movements between colony sites and feeding areas, while Tidemann and Nelson (2004) demonstrated long-distance movements between colonies. Breeding biology was dealt with by Martin et al (1985), O'Brien (1993), and Fox (2006), and conservation status was summarised by Dickman and Fleming (2002).…”

Regional genetic differentiation in the spectacled flying fox (Pteropus conspicillatus Gould)

“…We report here on present-day regional-scale genetic structure in the spectacled flying fox (Pteropus conspicillatus), generally assumed to be a rainforest specialist, and on the insights modern-day processes may provide for understanding responses of an extremely mobile animal to Pleistocene habitat contraction and fragmentation. All flying foxes are potentially extremely mobile and some species make seasonal migrations across hundreds of kilometres, following cycles of fruiting and flowering of favoured food trees (Eby 1991;Tidemann and Nelson 2004). Species such as the little red flying fox (Pteropus scapulatus) and grey-headed flying fox (P. poliocephalus) traverse many hundreds of kilometres in the course of a year and are apparently panmictic (Sinclair et al 1996;Tidemann 1996: Luly et al 2010).…”