A report of direct mortality in grey-headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) from the 2019-2020 Australian megafires

Study of the impacts of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires on flying-foxes has mainly focused on the effects of burnt habitat on food availability. It has previously only been assumed that flying-foxes probably died directly from these bushfires. We report an eyewitness account of numbers of grey-headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) being killed as they attempted to escape a bushfire engulfing a flying-fox camp in Jeremadra, New South Wales. Once in the air, most of the flying-foxes dropped to the ground, scattering carcasses throughout the vicinity. This observation represents the only eyewitness report of flying-fox mortalities occurring directly from these bushfires. Given the substantial proportion of the grey-headed flying-fox range affected by these bushfires, we infer that such mortalities likely occurred in other locations.