It was a scene from a nightmare. As temperatures in South Australia and Victoria soared past 42°C (107°F) last week, the trees began to rain dead bats. Thousands of Grey-headed flying foxes, a vulnerable species critical to pollinating Australia’s forests, succumbed to heat stress in the worst mass mortality event since the Black Summer bushfires.

Volunteers at Melbourne’s Brimbank Park described finding "carpets of death" beneath the roosts. The bats, unable to regulate their body temperature, simply fell from the branches. "It was creepy and eerie," said rescuer Brooke Henderson. "The ordinarily deafening noise of 3,000 bats had gone silent."

The "Orphan" Crisis

The tragedy is compounded by the survival of the young. While adult bats died from the heat, hundreds of pups survived, found clinging to the bodies of their dead mothers. "These orphans will slowly die of starvation or predation if they aren't found," warned Tamsyn Hogarth of the Fly by Night Bat Clinic.

• The Ecological Impact: Flying foxes are the "keystone pollinators" of the eucalyptus forests. Their mass death threatens the long-term health of the Australian bushland, which is already under stress from climate change.
• The Climate Link: Professor Justin Welbergen notes that such events are becoming more frequent. "Temperatures over 42 degrees cause mortality at biblical scales," he said. As heatwaves become the norm, the species faces an existential threat.

A Volunteer Army Overwhelmed

Wildlife carers are at breaking point, spending thousands of dollars on food and medicine for the rescued pups. They are calling on the government to install sprinkler systems in key roosting sites—a small investment to save a species that keeps the forest alive.