'Let Sleeping Bats Lie' says academic

Media Release, Tuesday 29 April 2008

A University of Melbourne academic is seeking help from farmers and the community to help the threatened Southern bent-wing bat survive through winter.

“Southern bent-wing bats are particularly sensitive to disturbance during the winter when they are in hibernation. The bats eat a lot of insects in the warm months to increase their body's energy reserves. If the bats are disturbed during winter, they will use up some of this energy, depleting their reserves such they may die if the season is long” said Dr Belinda Appleton from the Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne.

We are asking adventurers not to enter the caves, especially during the winter and ask farmers to decline access to their caves from May to August.

Dr Appleton first encountered the Southern bent-wing bat- Miniopterus schreibersii bassanii- ten years ago, during her PhD. Her research in the Department of Genetics resulted in the naming of the bat as a separate sub-species. It has recently been listed as Critically Endangered by the Australian Government, one of only four native mammals in Australia recognised to be facing a high risk of extinction in the near future.

“Southern bent-wing bats are dependent on caves for roost sites, and they only occur between Geelong, Victoria and Naracoorte in South Australia” Dr Appleton explains. “They are small bats, weighing only 18 grams, similar in size to a sparrow.

The Bent-wing bats get their name from the fact that they can fold the middle digit (or finger on the human body) back on itself, allowing them to neatly fold up their very long wings. These long wings allow them to fly very fast and cover long distances ,300km is not uncommon”.

Dr Appleton says that the total population of Southern bent-wing bats has declined to about one third of what it was 50 years ago. She says that factors include land clearing, removal of wetlands that provide a food supply of insects, along with disturbance to roosts and drought conditions have all contributed.

“We have many landowners keeping an eye out for any visitors to their farm and ensuring that they don't enter the caves during winter. We know that the caves are an exciting place to visit for Scout groups and adventurers but we ask that they leave the bats to hibernate at this time”.

Mrs Farrer a farmer in the Warrnambool region says she is happy to take responsibility of protecting the bat's habitat. Many South Australian landowners have cleared rubbish from wintering caves and some have planted vegetation corridors.

“Another major problem is that there are only two caves where they can breed. The breeding caves need to be large enough to accommodate a critical number of animals to warm the cave sufficiently for the pups to mature. Without reasonable numbers of bats they will not be able to successfully reproduce. Our research has found that the species has very low genetic diversity which means it is potentially under further threat from changes to the environment.”

A large number of researchers from South Australian Dept of Environment and Heritage, South Australian Museum, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment and the University of Melbourne are all working together on the problem.

“We are studying the bat from many different angles, using genetics, parasites, ecology, distribution and direct counting to try and find out how we can stall the decrease in numbers.”

“The Southern bent-wing bat is really an iconic native mammal to the region, and it is great that the public and landowners have expressed a wish to help with preventing its extinction.”


Anyone who has bats in caves on their property can contact Dr Appleton for more information.


Photographs are available on request.


For further information and interviews please contact:

Dr Belinda Appleton
Department of Genetics
University of Melbourne
Mobile: 0418573458
Office: 03 83449874 (or 83446240)
Email: b.appleton@unimelb.edu.au