This paper outlines a tree-planting scheme with the dual aim of conserving Grey-headed Flying-foxes Pteropus poliocephalus and reducing damage to fruit crops. Grey-headed Flying-foxes experience resource bottlenecks during winter and spring because of past habitat clearing and the erratic flowering of eucalypts. When there is broad-scale failure of native foods in spring, flying-foxes raid orchards for ripening exotic fruit. These events are compounded by spring births in flying-foxes and potentially greater mortality from shooting in orchards. Dual benefits to flying-foxes and orchardists could be achieved by replanting spring flowering tree species lost from past clearing. To aid this process we develop winter and spring species lists, prioritized on the basis of past clearing and their likelihood of contributing reliable food sources for flying-foxes in the future. We discuss ideas relating to where trees should be planted, and recommend that areas lacking commercial orchards could be targeted for spring plantings and that local decoy plantings should be avoided.

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Contents

Data & Figures

References

Other RZS NSW Publications

Managing the Grey-headed Flying-fox: As a Threatened Species in NSW

Edited by

Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7882/9780958608541

ISBN electronic:

978-0-9586085-4-1

Publication date:

2002