My old man would have killed tens of thousands of fruit bats on his apple farm in the 60s. Bird shot works just fine on fruit bats in case you were wondering.

amazing video! (as are all of the ones you make!) however it wouldve been great to also mention flying fox paralysis syndrome (FFPS) which has affected our wonderful flying friends over the past few years very similarly to lorikeets! keep up the great content!!

I once left my car overnight under a bat camp in North QLD. Needless to say, I did not make that mistake again.

In my area we have a lot of these bats and there are a bunch of horrid old people who hate them and want the trees they sleep in cut down.

Excellent work. Never knew the impact of these featherless flying friends. Thank you for teaching us all in such an entertaining video.

The constant reinvention descriptions that this guy does in all of his videos has me rolling on the floor ("hovering hounds", "winged wolves") and that newsreel commentary at 8:51 is pure gold. But there's a message, and that's really special. Any day that the Backyard Naturalist posts a new video is a good day.

Imagine a headline like "crisper scientist discovers the gene for size in the Australian flying fox bat; new advanced scientifically crafted micro fruitbats maybe the answer to global bee population decline" 🤣

Thanks this rules

Would KZbin have struck the video if you didn't censor the bat penis? Funny if it was just a gag but it feels weird and unnecessary censoring animal genitals.

they are so friend shaped

Amazing video!!! Great work!!! You should be working for the ABC in some capacity

10:28 sounds about right 😂

I grew up in Bundaberg. I remember instances of people trying to move on the bat colonies. Between them and the rainbow lorikeets in the CBD, your car is bound to get 💩 on it but hey, they're such amazing creatures.

I can smell this video

Absolutely loved this! Here's my bin chicken story: One day I was out for a walk with my daughter and saw a 7 or 8 ibises methodically searching for food in the grass at the local oval. I said, "Look! It's NCIbis!" She rolled her eyes, but I gotta tell you, once you see this behaviour, you can't unsee it.

A beautiful animal.

As an Australian, it wasn't until I was in my mid teens that i realised some bats were small. i just thought all bats were the size of small cats. Before that I thought movies were using the incorrect sized props when showing bats.

Dude this is crazy... I literally went down a rabbit hole last night on flying foxes cause I keep seeing them dive bomb into neighborhood trees, thank you for talking about these fine creatures

I've seen them all lining the banks in their thousands at Yarra Bend - a memorable day, not least because it was right after watching Neil Gaiman present Niall Doran's Sixteen Legs, a doco about spiders that included newly discovered details about spider sex 😄

Oooh, you didn’t give an honourable mention to their diminutive and cute as a button relatives, the blossom bats.

Such beautiful creatures. They have such a cute face. I remember having one climbing over me when I was a kid and Mum was a member of WIRES

Beethoven’s 7th AND flying foxes. What a treat!

One of your best videos so far

I watched them fly over my summer solstice evening walk and was delighted, hadn’t had that experience for a while and thought it was a fabulous omen. Thanks for another insight

The “I can’t believe it’s not A Current Affair” got a laugh out of me. So glad I don’t watch broadcast television these days, it’s garbage.

Flying foxes fkn rule! There’s been a colony near my home for decades and we used to travel to wingham every Christmas to visit my Nan and the spectacle of seeing the nightly launch of 10s of thousands of bats from the wingham brush is something I’ll never forget, and yes they stink, like seriously badly as well like a thousand teenage boys who simultaneously missed the bowl and pissed on your floor!

We are the real guests and we are pretty terrible guests. 12:01

Great video! Thankyou for a quite comprehensive intro. I only wish you could have included the song of the butcher bird. One of my favourites sounds to wake up to. Hopefully you wil be able to do another video featuring the lyrebird. It's hard to spot, but boy, I honestly think it is the most impressive for people from other countries. Bowerbirds and brolgas would be great as well. Keep up the great work.

Great episode once again. I feel i need to correct you with regards to shark fatalities though , according to wikipedia there have been fifty fatal shark attackssince 2000.

the first video I watched was the common Australian plants video, I love this channel

Damn these guys have the cutest faces. Thanks to Hollywood and also to presumptuous media-led myths, flying foxes and bats in general have been given such a bad wrap and therefore, the cause of so many people worldwide fearing them at a psychological level. Personally, I had no idea and no educated awareness about anything relating to these innocent creatures. I had no fear yet had no knowledge until now, thanks to "The Backyard Naturalist." Great call, Darcy, awesome episode. Your students don't always need pretty and colourful. Sometimes a punch between the eyes is the best wakeup call. This is yet another sad state of affairs taking place within our country. Hopefully this video will bring more attention and awareness before it's too late.

Important or not, their shit melts my falcons clear coat, not on 😤

Thank you for this awesome video. I love fruit bats! I love going to Yarra Bend to see them, they're so fascinating and so impressive en masse!

tthis is so good bro!

Shit yeah been waiting for this one, earlier this year I got a flying fox tattoo, love these guys

The Big Fat Question Mark Era in Australian history. Should be taught in schools.

Hovering hounds 😹🦇🙏

Genetically engendered french backpacker haha

Is that the sound of an umbrella being shaken out, or a flying fox?

I love watching the flying foxes flying over my place in late spring and into summer at sunset.

The flying foxes have caused problems in Machattie Park in Bathurst through no fault of their own - they used to live in the willow trees along the Macquarie River but when these were all cut down they moved into the city park and have all but destroyed the wonderful old trees there, as well as being a health risk to people in the park. The council had planned to provide corridors of habitat for the flying foxes but as yet this still hasn't happened. I should add that in summer they have not infrequently been dropping dead from the heat. Thanks for the very informative video - I've directed people overseas onto your channel, it's fabulous.

Good viewing, didn’t appreciate the “ they must be desperate “ comment about my lovely city! The bats are very happy here.

Its not as common to see them in WA so it was a bit of a shock when i moved to VIC and saw so many

Rarely do I smile so much while learning so much, but this channel achieves that. Thanks and Merry Christmas Darcy

Wowzers

Thankyou

Top tier music choices as always!

amazing video, also love the castlevania music choice