In northern Australia, at least 23,000 spectacled flying foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus), a type of fruit-eating bat, died over two days last November as the country experienced record-breaking temperatures of more than 42 °C (107 °F), the BBC reports. That body count, tallied by wildlife volunteers in the weeks after the heatwave, amounts to about a third of the 75,000 spectacled flying foxes in Australia, and it may be an underestimate, Western Sydney University ecologist Justin Welbergen tells the publication.
“It was totally depressing,” rescuer David White tells the BBC. About 10,000 black flying foxes (Pteropus alecto) also died during the same two days of extreme heat.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of bony herring (Nematalosa erebi), golden and silver perch (Macquaria ambigua and Bidyanus bidyanus, respectively), and Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) have died in Australia’s Darling River as a result of the extreme weather conditions. In addition to the record-breaking temperatures, ...
