Cyclone Narelle: Flying Fox Pups Face Starvation Crisis

Wildlife rescuers in Australia’s Northern Territory are working to save hundreds of orphaned flying fox pups after their parents abandoned them ahead of ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle. Hundreds of dead and dying juvenile bats have been found in the towns of Katherine and Pine Creek, south of Darwin.

Flying Fox Pup Crisis in Northern Territory

Wildlife rescuers are scrambling to save hundreds of flying fox pups after the Northern Territory’s native fruit bat population suffered “mass casualties” in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle.

Hundreds of dead and dying juvenile flying foxes have recently covered the streets of Katherine and Pine Creek, after their parents abandoned them ahead of last month’s extreme weather event. More than 20 wildlife workers and volunteers are completing almost daily rescue missions between Darwin and the small outback towns.

Wild North Veterinary Hospital practice manager Kacey Farris said it had been “pretty devastating” listening to the stricken creatures “screaming for their mum.”

“Hundreds are dead; they’re falling around you while you’re trying to rescue other ones, falling to the ground screaming like we just missed them,” she said. “I’ve never, ever seen mass casualties like this, especially babies.”

Interstate Transfer Denied

The Darwin veterinary hospital reached out to NT Parks and Wildlife for help, but the government declined to offer additional workers or funding, instead taking a few carcasses for autopsies. A request to transfer surviving bats over the border for specialist care was also denied.

In a refusal notice, an NT Parks and Wildlife representative said “the potential animal welfare and biosecurity risks” of transferring the bats outweighed “the benefits to a species that is abundant and not classified as threatened.” The deaths were likely attributable to natural causes, potentially starvation due to weather impacting food resources.

Rebecca Webster, a wildlife vet with the Darwin hospital, said her preliminary findings aligned with the cause of death conclusions drawn by Parks and Wildlife. “From what we gather, the adults all took off prior to the cyclone and they have left their babies there – so most of the babies are orphaned, and there’s hundreds to thousands of babies alone,” she said.

Dr. Webster added that a flying fox crash at this scale is “fairly unprecedented” and that the bats are important for forest pollination and regeneration.

NT’s Centre for Disease Control urged Territorians to avoid contact with the dead bats, noting that bats can carry viruses, including the Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV), which can cause a rabies-like infection. There have been four human cases of ABLV disease in Australia, with the most recent in 2025 in New South Wales.

NT Parks and Wildlife declined to comment.

Volunteers Work Around the Clock

An estimated 160 pups have been rescued and relocated to Darwin, but only about half are expected to survive long-term. Veteran wildlife carer Ally Syzac is among the volunteers caring for the surviving bats at home, with some carers taking in as many as 45 pups.

“Most of the ones that are in at the moment are on five feeds a day, so our morning starts pretty early,” Syzac said. “We do this because we love animals and we work with our hearts, but they get broken almost on a daily basis.”