Flying fox colony takes off - problems now in Bathurst and Orange

Most of the colony, which had taken over a section of the Cowra Golf Course over winter and early spring, appears to have moved on.

While the exact whereabouts of the grey-headed and little red flying foxes which had been roosting across the Cowra site can't be known, interestingly both Bathurst and Orange have reported increased flying fox numbers in recent weeks.

In Bathurst the council was last week forced to close Machattie Park, located in the centre of the city due to the high volume of flying foxes making camp there.

Bathurst Council staff believe at least 5000 flying foxes are now inhabiting the park.

Bathurst mayor Jess Jennings claimed the cause of a tree branching falling in the park recently was due to the weight of flying foxes on the branch.

"Arborists identified a significant amount of additional branch detachments and failures throughout the canopy of many trees within the area they were working that have been caused by the sheer numbers of flying foxes roosting within the trees," Cr Jennings told the Western Advocate newspaper.

"The facts are the bats are making that park an incredibly unsafe place to be for respiratory reasons, but also for safety in terms of falling limbs and branches from trees that are being damaged," he said.