AUSTRALIA, Sydney - July 2000
Construction of interpretive signage regarding the Flying Fox Colony at the Royal Botanic Gardens
Flying foxes are large bats with a wing span which may exceed one meter. Food sources include pollen, nectar and fruit from a wide variety of trees. Only one species of flying fox occurs within the Royal Botanic Gardens - the Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus). They are a protected and endangered species. The Botanic Gardens Trust wishes to create interpretive signage that gives the visiting public a greater understanding of these flying foxes - that they are an Australian native species and they play an important role in plant pollination and seed dispersal, while also explaining some of the negative impacts of the huge numbers which have taken up residence in the Botanic Gardens 200-year-old Palm Grove.
UPDATE July 2005 - Recent estimates of the population of the Grey-headed Flying Fox bat colony at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Australia (RBGSA) are approximately 8,500. In 2003, Seacology support allowed RBGSA to research, design and install two new interpretive signs explaining both the positive and negative aspects of the flying fox habitation in the Royal Botanic Gardens. In 2004, several more signs were installed and a flying fox brochure was produced.
