Remove your bats

Gordon Bats are facing the threat of eviction after living in the area since the 1960s.

Problems such as tree deterioration, erosion of creek banks and defoliage mean local bats face the prospect of losing their 14.6-hectare reserve.

The Gordon site is important as it offers sanctuary for local flying marsupials to roost during the birth season and it alone hosts as many as 45,000 bats in the peak season between October and January.

The folks at the Ku-ring-gai Bat Conservation Society are working hard to keep the bats in residence with a number of programmes including the Ku-ring-gai Flying Fox Reserve in Gordon.

"Every Tuesday, a group of us meet up down at the Gordon site for some bush regeneration," committee member Marjorie Beck explains. The bush regeneration is now in phase 4 of the programme, which ensures the local bats' habitat is conserved.

Any avid bat watchers will see plenty of grey headed flying foxes in Gordon, a species which Marjorie says has experienced "a 30 per cent decrease in numbers in recent years," which is all the more reason to help the Bat Conservation Society.

Bats are important, not only because they look cool and have spawned a bat related counter-culture spearheaded by Batman, but also because they play an important part in the eco-system by dispersing rainforest seeds and keeping insect numbers down to the bare essentials.

With 'conservation, education and research' the key aims of the Bat Conservation Society, Marjorie Beck is keen to dispel the myth about vampires and blood sucking bats; "They are the most precious and remarkable creatures we have." Being an endangered species, the conservation work is very important to protect the bats from going the way of the dodo.

The Ku-ring-gai Bat Conservation Society run a range of walks and educational tours and new members are always welcome to participate in the bush regeneration group on a Tuesday morning. More information can be found at www.sydneybats.org.au.