Please support flying-fox conservation by making a submission on the draft recovery plans for spectacled and grey-headed flying-foxes. They need all the support they can get – because they are threatened (listed as 'vulnerable' under the EPBC Act) and in decline, because they are demonized - and because their recovery is vital for many woodland and forest ecosystems.

Recent research has shown for each species that mortality levels are too high to maintain populations. Their habitat continues to be destroyed.

In your submission on each plan, you could emphasise the following:

• The importance of including as a recovery objective the conservation of flying-foxes as important pollinators and seed-dispersers (this is in the plan for grey-headed but not spectacled flying-foxes)
• Your strong support for conserving and restoring the habitat of flying-foxes, which continues to decline due to urban expansion (eg. the grey-headed flying-fox is losing about 1% of its winter food sources in SEQ annually)
• The importance of powerful education programs that involve conservation and wildlife care groups (eg. Wildlife Queensland’s batty boat cruises are an excellent educational program) and are assessed for their effectiveness
• Your support for reducing illegal killing in orchards by support for netting adoption, research to develop a reliable method of assessing the effectiveness of deterrents and strong compliance programs
• In the case of spectacled flying-foxes, your recommendation that tick paralysis be treated as a 'significant' threat

Although the recovery plans are supported by the Queensland government, it has failed to list these two flying-foxes as threatened, despite having been advised to do so eight years years ago by the then scientific advisory committee. Use your submission to request that the Queensland government list the two species as vulnerable.

The draft national recovery plans are out for comment until 4 January 2010. They can be downloaded from these links: Grey-Headed Flying-Fox – Recovery Plan, Spectacled Flying-Fox – Recovery Plan . Hard copies are available from the Department’s Community Information Unit: email or call 1800 803 772.

More general details of the wide range of recovery plans currently under review.

For more information on Wildlife Queensland's activities, call us on +61 7 3221 0194 or send us an email.