100s Of Flying Foxes Killed By Sydney Heat; Brain Death From Temps Up To 117

[hatrack]

It's summer in Australia and extreme heat is causing bats' brains to fry. Hundreds of fur-covered flying fox bats, which lack sufficient canopy cover and shade in Australia's suburbs, died outside Sydney over the weekend as temperatures soared to 117 degrees F, the hottest it's been since 1939.

The Camden Advertiser reports as of Monday, 204 dead bats — mostly babies — whose brains had boiled had been collected in Campbelltown.

In addition to the bat pups found dead on the ground, several hundred more remained unreachable in the trees, according to Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown, the group that organized the rescue and body collection effort. "I don't know how many times I bent down and got on my knees to pick up a dead baby," Kate Ryan, identified as the colony manager, told the newspaper.

There are four species of flying fox bats in Australia and all are susceptible to extreme heat. Although they've adapted to warm temperatures, the fruit-eating creatures have trouble regulating their body temperature when the weather goes above 104 degrees F. Baby bats are in even greater danger because they can't regulate their bodies as well as adults, and they often die of dehydration while adults find refuge on higher tree branches.

EDIT

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/10/576908629/australias-heat-wave-fries-bats-brains-hundreds-found-dead

[Farmer-Rick]

1. Close your eyes, tap your heals and repeat

There's no global warming, there's no global warming, there's no global warming.

What Trump and the GOP say every morning.