It seems, to many of us, that the diseased flying fox population in Queensland and NSW is increasing out of control. This is despite the so-called experts saying that the animal is endangered.
It’s time these people got off their backsides in front of a computer screen and sought facts. The current spread of bats diseased with Hendra virus, along the entire tropical and sub-tropical coasts of eastern Australia, is indicative of serious over-population.
Higher densities of the animals create a greater contagion pressure and spread of the deadly virus and other diseases such as lissa virus (a variant of rabies).
The experts talk of depletion of food sources by the flood rains causing migrations to new areas. Probable, but the excessive population in colonies is the main problem and similar past circumstances have driven them to wipe out our fruit crops unhindered, since government banned their control three years ago.
Now we feed them on our cultivated fruit so that they survive, when in pre-European history their starving colony populations would have dropped naturally to sustainable levels. This also would have reduced disease spread among the animals.
Please stop this nonsense and bring back the capability to control colony populations or move them on by culling in flying fox camps. This method has worked for more than 130 years and they are still around in their tens of millions.
Bob Johnson, Stanthorpe
