GHFF in the wild

Just hanging around

A bat on a bombing run......

Look at that concentration :-) This grey headed flying fox is just starting to climb away having belly dipped in the Parramatta River. The soaking will help to cool it down and, as the bat flies away, it will lick water from its stomach fur to aid rehydration in the very hot (40C+) conditions.

Awwwww......

Would you pick a fight with this mother?

Grey headed flying fox gaining altitude after belly skimming the Parramatta River on a very hot day in February 2009. That's river water dripping off her body. She started licking her belly just a few flaps after this but my camera wasn't playing nicely and the shots were out of focus

This juvenile grey headed flying fox misjudged a belly dip (where it would skim the river surface and pick up water by soaking its stomach fur) and turned it into a face plant. It must have been a bit stressful for him but within seconds of hitting the water, he tried a couple of flaps (I assume trying to take off, which was never going to work) and then gave up and butterflied/dog paddled his way to the bank, about 20m away, without any trouble at all. A suprisingly good swimmer in fact...... No doubt he was very cool, well rehydrated and a little shaken after his accident.

One happy but tired mum

February 8th, 2009. Parramatta Park. 40C+ and relatively low humidity gave conditions that were getting uncomfortably close to heat stress which can cause mass mortality in grey headed flying fox colonies. On the same day, thousands of greys died in heat stress conditions further south in Melbourne. This flying fox is belly dipping in Parramatta River to rehydrate and cool herself. It's a technique that requires a lot of skill. Heat stress seems to kill a lot of very young bats and part of the reason may be that their flight skills just aren't good enough for them to belly dip.

Belly dipping grey headed flying fox getting a good dunking in Parramatta River