KarunaNews Story

Ingham, in northern Australia, is surrounded by vast sugarcane farms, pristine rainforest, empty beaches and lush waterfalls - and flying foxes, members of the fruit bat family, a protected species. But when population ballooned to over 500,000, far outnumbering the local human population of less than 5,000, it disrupted town life and tourism. Mayor Ramon Jayo of the Hinchinbrook Shire Council, facing pressure from some residents to cull the animals, called in Biodiversity Australia, a private consultancy that has worked with 25 councils and private entities to relocate the bats. Five years on, while the flying foxes have moved further afield, the council spends A$3,000 (around $2,000 U.S.) per month on a daily early morning crew that patrols the former hotspots for any “scouts”, and will do so until this generation of flying foxes makes way for new generations that have no memory of the town.