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The fig season is over in a hurry; the bats stripped both trees overnight. How did they find the trees? I have never seen a fruit bat within 50 Km of here and the nearest other fruit trees are at least 3 Km away, there is no native food source available anywhere near, no fruit or veg crops, nothing anywhere! Normal bird netting did not even slow them down (except one that got tangled in the net and which, with god-like forebearance, I released)

Oh dear. Well at least it gave them a snack before the rest of their journey.

Are their usual habitats under some sort of threat? We generally only see deer round here after they've reached near starvation, otherwise they rarely leave the hills - I wonder if it's something similar with your fruit bats.

You'll need to be quicker off the mark next year, pick them as soon as they're ripe and leave a few for the wildlife.

This particular species (little red) is relatively widespread in Eastern Oz from top to bottom but I have never seen them around here before. Our season in the East has been very dry so they may be wandering looking for food - they are mainly flower feeders but take fruit when available. A larger species (grey headed) was restricted to the coastal strip but is moving inland due to habitat loss (I have seen these in the region but not on Beavers island) - their forest homes are being cleared for "development"; mainly housing for cashed up retirees leaving Sydney for a sea / tree change.

The problem with figs is they ripen only after a series of hot days so picking is staggered - plus the fruit does not ripen after picking so has to be left on the trees. The bats took everything except a few immature green fruits.