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The Sydney Headquarters

Centennial Park's Lachlan Swamp is the exact location of the Sydney headquarters for our flying fox superheroes. (We are only telling you because we think we can trust you with this top-secret information).

More than 40,000 flying foxes have been seen here, resting after a hard night’s work spreading pollen, and of course, pooing far and wide. Watch the video to see Lachlan swamp from a bat’s eye view as it flies home.

Flying foxes have been visiting Centennial Park for a long time, but they only set up their headquarters here in 2010. Their colony was too large for its location in the inner city, and they chose Centennial Park as their new home.

When you come to Centennial Park, you can watch the flying foxes hanging upside down in our trees. If you see one pull itself up the right way with its climbing claw, watch out! It is about to poo or wee and you don’t want to get hit!

During hot weather, you can see flying foxes dipping and skimming across the waters of Lachlan Swamp to stay cool. They also lick the water off their fur to drink.

RBGSYD

Activities

Read the story about Ficus the Flying Fox coming to Centennial Park.

Write and perform an interview with Ficus for TV (Flying Fox News).
Make sure you ask him why he had to move, why he chose Centennial Park and why everyone should like flying foxes. You could even ask him how people can help flying foxes.
 
Flying foxes chose Centennial Park for their Sydney Headquarters because there were lots of good trees to hang in and feed on.

Design a Flying Fox Headquarters for your area.
Using natural materials, make a model of your Flying Fox Headquarters and take a photo (you might want to add labels in an iBook). Explain your model to a friend and compare.
Your headquarters needs:

  • trees for hanging in
  • trees with flowers and fruit to eat
  • somewhere to cool down and drink in hot weather
  • safe fences to stop dogs and other things that might scare the flying foxes
  • paths nearby so people can watch and learn about flying foxes
  • picnic tables away from places bats might poo.
This is an example of Flying Fox Headquarters:

 

Can you work out where our Centennial Park flying foxes go to find food?

  • Open Google maps and find Centennial Park.
  • Right click and choose ‘Measure Distance’ from the list.
  • Click on Centennial Park and drag the measuring bar out to 50 km. The 2 types of flying foxes can fly about 50km to find food.
  • Move the bar around and work out all the places with trees that flying foxes might go to find food.

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