Urban Queensland councils will face an uphill battle to relocate flying fox roosts, according to findings of a recent Griffith University study.

The study found colonies return to their favourite roosts, even with decade-long efforts to move them. And, as the highly mobile megabat species prefers urban areas, attempts to relocate them to bush environments backfire, with colonies instead establishing new roosts near their original.

Griffith University Professor Carla Catterall, reported in The Australian, said trying to force bats away was "ill-advised" and a "waste of money”.  Councils would face ongoing costs to sustain any relocation efforts, as the bats would always try and return.

Management of flying foxes remains a highly contentious issue in the region.

As The Newsport reported on May 8, the Newman Government washed its hands of Queensland’s flying fox debate earlier this month, transferring decision-making responsibilities for the mammals' management from states to local councils. Before the responsibility handover,  local councils had to follow strict guidelines in any attempt to move problematic colonies.  

Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat Operations Manager Bruce Alexander told The Newsport bat colonies are an important part of the region’s ecology, and played an important part in maintaining Far North Queensland’s major tourism drawcards.

"People come up here to visit us in Port Douglas for the Daintree Rainforest and Mossman Gorge...if we don't have our flying foxes, down the track we don't have our Daintree," he said.

Four breeds of flying fox call the Australian mainland home, with Port’s local breed, the Spectacled Flying-Fox,  only found in Australia’s tropical rainforests. Tourism Daintree Region says flying foxes play an essential role in pollination and seed dispersal and, although common and considered a pest in some urban areas, they are a vulnerable species under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.  

Read The Newsport's May 8 story, 'Bat fight heats up':<link bat-fight-heats-up-newsport.9455.0.html> www.tourismportdouglas.com.au/Bat-fight-heats-up-NEWSPORT.9455.0.html