Today I discovered the largest bat I’ve ever seen and it was hanging from a power line. Never a good thing for sure. Poor thing was dead but since it was hanging upside down and that is normal behaviour for them, I wasn’t sure for a few days. After some time it was pretty apparent that it was deceased, a victim of a rainy night flying, sadly they fall victim to electrocution too often.

Fascinating creatures, there are actually three species of flying-fox found in Sydney. And, no surprise, I learned they are Australia’s largest bat. They are also very important pollinators and seed dispersers for the health of the fruit trees and forests. Unfortunately they can also wreak havoc in people’s gardens here and many people view them as pests and disease carriers. Like all animals, even humans, bats can host viruses and parasites, however, only one person has ever died by the lyssavirus here and the Hendra virus has never been contracted by anyone through a bat yet four people died by contracting this virus from horses.

Here’s a close-up of the dead flying fox. For days I watched it hanging, wondering when it would finally fall and hit the sidewalk or some unlucky person below. Unsuspecting runners, walkers and brides with their bridal parties would walk and linger under the tattered animal.

In the end, what is one’s misfortune in life becomes another’s dinner as this sulphur-crested cockatoo demonstrates or at least attempts to prove.