FLYING foxes have finally started to take up residence in a habitat planted three years ago to lure them away from neighbouring homes.
Wet weather has accelerated the growth of 20,400 plants and trees Lake Macquarie City Council (LMCC) established in an old citrus orchard at Blackalls Park.
Before the revegetation began, some 5000 flying foxes roosted close to homes around Fennell Crescent, bringing with them complaints about noise and smell from locals, LMCC senior natural assets officer Dominic Edmonds said.
"We figured that if we cleared out the weeds and planted suitable habitat and feeding trees in the middle of the site, we might eventually encourage the flying foxes to shift further away from the edge," he said.
"It takes time for these trees to get tall enough to achieve these goals, but we've been really excited in the past few weeks to see the first bats already taking up residence in them."
Some of the plants now stand at more than six metres tall, with weed coverage down to five per cent.
Flying foxes are a protected species in NSW, facing threats of habitat loss, heat stress from extreme weather and accidental death from entaglement in powerlines, fences and garden netting.
The Blackalls Park camp was decimated in the summer of 2020, as thousands died from a combination of heatwaves, drought, bushfires and starvation.
It prompted wildlife carers to call on the public to give the flying foxes access to fruit trees in their backyards.
Mr Edmonds said they're largely misunderstood creatures.
"Flying foxes are a much-maligned species because of their unusual aroma and their tendency to squabble noisily during the day," he said.
"They're actually beautiful animals, intelligent, gregarious and an important part of our ecosystem - spreading seeds through their droppings and pollinating native plants."
