In Autumn, the Little Red Flying foxes arrive on the Fraser Coast as the Melaleucia (tea tree!) forests bloom.The numbers of megabats in the Tooan Tooan Creek Camps rises from some thousands of Black Flying foxes to Millions of Migratory Little Red flying foxes and Grey Headed Flying foxes. The nightly flyout often heads for the forests of Fraser Island.
If one million Flying foxes fly to Fraser Island Their combined weight is around 500 tons and they process tons of fruit, leaves,flowers, pollen and nectar every night.
If every Flying fox dropped a single waste pellet (a spat or faeces) weighing 5 grams, One million Flying foxes would drop 5000 kilograms (5 tons) of high quality organic fertiliser into the bay as they return from Fraser Island. By the wonderfull multiplying power of photosynthesis, this equates, in aquaculture production terms, to a production of some 100 tons of baitfish for every night that the flyout continues.!! They also fertilize the easturies at their mangrove roosts as well as their vital roles in forest ecosystems.
