Flying-Fox Forum 2021
Video Presentations
Hosted Live Online, September 14, 2021
The Forum provides up-to-date research and insight into the management and conservation of flying-foxes and their habitat right across their range.
Ecosure has facilitated and lead six successful annual forums, which have been attended by experts in the field and delegates from local, state and federal government, research institutions, NRM groups, NGOs, wildlife care organisations and conservation groups.
Welcome to the Forum by Ecosure Hosts:
Jess Bracks & Ellie Kirke
All presentations of the 2021 Flying-fox Forum can be accessed below.
>> Just click on the plus icon which will drop down the video. <<
You can also download the entire presentation as a PDF from the delegates who shared their files.
FORUM WELCOME & SOUTH AUSTRALIA UPDATE - Jason Van Weenan
VICTORIA UPDATE - Rodney Vile
ACT UPDATE - Michelle Jeffery
NEW SOUTH WALES UPDATE - Matthew Mo & Sue Ellis
QUEENSLAND UPDATE - Lindsay Delzoppo
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT UPDATE - Tim McGrath
KOOLOONBUNG CREEK FLYING-FOX CAMP MANAGEMENT PLAN – DELIVERY OF ACTIONS - Byron Reynolds
REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ON THE ROOSTING OF FLYING-FOXES - Tamika Lunn
RESTORING FLYING-FOX HABITAT - Jenn Ford
CAMP RESTORATION AND SPECIES RECOVERY: ENHANCING HABITAT FOR THE GREY-HEADED FLYING-FOX IN BEGA - Hugh Pity
PRESERVATION OF HERITAGE TREE ASSETS – DISPERSE OR NUDGE? COLAC BOTANICAL GARDENS GREY HEADED FLYING FOX CAMP MANAGEMENT - Cameron Duthie & Mark Robinson
NATIONAL FLYING-FOX MONITORING PROGRAMMING: 9 YEARS OF GREY-HEADED FLYING-FOX POPULATION DATA - Adam McKeown
PARALYSIS EVENT IN FLYING-FOXES IN QUEENSLAND AND NEW SOUTH WALES - Keren Co Witton & Anita Gordon
FLYING-FOX ODOUR NEUTRALISING TRIAL - Jess Bracks, Natalie Foster, Tyron de Kauwe
A REPORT OF RARE CLUSTERS OF AUSTRALIAN BAT LYSSAVIRUS INFECTIONS IN QUEENSLAND - Janine Barrett
REVERSING THE PATHWAY TO EXTINCTION: THE SPECTACLED FLYING-FOX RECOVERY TEAM - Maree Treadwell-Kerr, Sera Steves
THE IMPACT OF HEAT STRESS EVENTS AND ELECTROCUTIONS ON JUVENILE GREY-HEADED FLYING-FOXES: ADELAIDE COLONY - Linda Collins
CORONAVIRUSES AND AUSTRALIAN BATS: NEW DATA AND A REVIEW IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC - Dr. Alison Peel
EXPANDING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GREY-HEADED FLYING-FOX MOVEMENT, FORAGING BEHAVIOUR, POPULATION STATUS, AND THREATS - Dr. Justin Welbergen, Dr. John Martin
2021 Flying-fox Forum Speakers
Meet Our Speakers
Jason Van Weenen
Team Leader, Urban Biodiversity | Department for Environment and Water
Jason is an ecologist with the South Australian Department for Environment and Water and has been working with threatened species conservation projects and native species management for 24 years. He now sits within the ecology team of the Green Adelaide Landscapes Region and has been involved with flying foxes since their arrival in South Australia in 2010. In his personal time, Jason is committed to the restoration of bushland areas in his care, volunteering in wildlife conservation projects and leading biodiversity conservation activities on one of SA’s offshore islands.
Lindsay Delzoppo
Director - Wildlife Northern Operations | Department of Environment and Science
Lindsay is the Director of Northern Wildlife Operations, where he is responsible for: public and stakeholder engagement, delivery of cassowary, crocodile and flying-fox management programs, development of wildlife management policies such as flying-fox codes of practice and roost management guidelines, and investigations and compliance under Queensland’s Nature Conservation laws. His previous roles include Director of Environmental Impact Assessment (DEH), Director of Regional Service Delivery (DERM), Director of Sustainable Industries (Environmental Protection Agency), and Regional Director for the far northern region of Queensland (QPWS).
Jen Ford
Principal Restoration Ecologist
Jen is a highly experienced ecological restoration practitioner with 25 years’ experience working in a range of positions. She has worked in the field as a Bush Regenerator, as a trainer and TAFE teacher of Conservation and Ecosystem Management and in local and state government roles facilitating the recovery of many sites and large conservation areas. For the last 8 years, Jen has been in the role of Ecosure’s Principal Restoration Ecologist where she leads a team of 60+ people. Her experience includes successfully applying a range of ecological restoration approaches across a wide range of ecosystem and habitat types. She successfully works on larger scales including developing practical ecological restoration plans to assist a wide range of people understand how and where to intervene on a site to maximise recovery and achieve project goals.
Mark Robinson
Team Leader Parks and Gardens | Colac Otway Shire
Mark is the Team Leader Parks and Gardens for the Colac Otway Shire and oversees the maintenance of all the shires active and passive areas of open space including the historical Colac Botanical Gardens. Mark has provided to the Colac community 40 years of service and as a part of his portfolio provides oversight of the Botanical gardens. Mark has taken the Project Management lead for the management of the Colac Grey Headed Flying Fox Camp and the current nudging project.
Natalie Foster
Natural Resources - Flying-fox Officer | Eurobodalla Shire Council
Tyron de Kauwe
Natural Areas Conservation Officer | Sunshine Coast Regional Council
Tyron is a Natural Areas Conservation Officer with a strength in developing novel management techniques for wildlife conservation and conflict issues. Tyron is highly experienced in flying-fox management and conservation and is a member of the SEQ flying-fox managers group and the LGAQ/DES flying-fox special working group. He also presented at Annual flying-fox forum 2019 on novel Heat-stress Autonomous Response Unit, for which he was a Finalist for Sunshine Coast Council CEO Awards 2019 Innovation Category (Project lead). Tyron was also involved in the Queensland-first trial of subsidised services program for flying-fox management.
Dr. Alison Peel
ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Research Fellow | Griffith University
Alison is a DECRA Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She trained as a wildlife veterinarian in Sydney and London, but it was her PhD at the University of Cambridge which introduced her to the world of bats. She is now working on a large project across 5 continents that aims to understand the root drivers of bat viral dynamics and ways in which we can pre-empt and prevent spillover. She mostly focuses on ecological drivers of viral community dynamics of Hendra virus and other bat paramyxoviruses in Australian flying foxes, but has also recently branched out in attempt to fill the significant gaps in knowledge on coronaviruses in Australian bats.
Dr. Justin Welbergen
Associate Professor | Western Sydney University
Justin Welbergen is an Associate Professor at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (Western Sydney University), where he leads the “Lab of Animal Ecology”. He is also President of the Australasian Bat Society, a nonprofit organisation whose aim is to promote the conservation and study of bats in Australasia. In addition, he is co-founder of ‘BATsLAB’, a primary academic destination for bat research in Australia. Justin’s research covers a range of subjects in whole-organism biology, but focuses on the evolutionary ecology of bats and birds. He has parallel interests in conservation and climate change biology, and particularly in the areas of endangered species biology, human-wildlife conflict, extreme events, and conservation planning. Justin and his students have worked on flying-foxes for over 20 years, starting with his study on the social organisation of the grey-headed flying-fox for his PhD from the University of Cambridge. Further info: https://www.animalecologylab.org/justin-welbergen.html
Rodney Vile
Principal Officer Wildlife Emergencies | Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
Rodney is the Principal Officer Wildlife Emergencies for the Victorian Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning (DELWP). In this role he develops policy, response plans and training programs for the declared wildlife emergencies within Victoria and provides strategic leadership and advice to the State during incidents. Rodney represents DELWP on Victorian and national committees to ensure that wildlife emergency response plans are developed in line with industry best practice and that synergies between response agencies are developed. He has undertaken a range of roles that has given him experience in extension, regulation and enforcement, vocational training and development, emergency management and program and project management at senior levels. The development of response plans and training programs is a key strength.
Tim McGrath
Threatened Species Officer, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Tim has been working for the Australian Government for the last 10 years in the Threatened Species section. Prior to that, he worked privately as a consultant ecologist in Queensland. His role with the Commonwealth is diverse but relates largely to threatened species listing assessments and conservation planning, particularly for reptiles. Other responsibilities include supporting regulatory areas of the Department with threatened species advice, engaging with traditional owners on the conservation of culturally important species, educating the agricultural sector on its responsibilities to threatened species under national environmental law and managing some responsibilities for nationally listed flying-foxes.
Tamika Lunn
PhD Candidate | Griffith University
Tamika recently completed her PhD at Griffith University under the supervision of Alison Peel, Hamish McCallum and Raina Plowright, and advisement of Peggy Eby. Tamika’s PhD research focussed on quantifying the roosting structure of flying-foxes in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, including application of roost structure information to conservation goals and understanding of disease dynamics. Tamika’s presentation focusses on one element of her PhD research that has recently been accepted for publication – ‘Conventional wisdom on roosting behaviour of Australian flying foxes – a critical review, and evaluation using new data’ – available as a preprint: DOI: 10.22541/au.161615114.43163894/v2.
Cameron Duthie
Manager, Services and Operations | Colac Otway Shire
Cameron is the Manager of Services and Operations for the Colac Otway Shire and has had to date an extensive career in Local Government more specially oversight and management of Council service delivery. This includes the management of environmental issues including more recently the Colac Colony of Grey Headed Flying Foxes. Cameron is passionate in making a difference to the Colac community through precise management of operations and effective environmental outcomes.
Jess Bracks
Principal Wildlife Biologist | Ecosure
Jess is a Wildlife Biologist with 16 years’ practical experience with wildlife through positions in the veterinary, zoo and consulting industries. She has extensive experience in risk assessment and managing human/wildlife conflict, with demonstrated successful outcomes developing and implementing mitigation measures for a diverse array of wildlife. Jess is passionate about driving pragmatic wildlife management policy, balancing the needs of community and conservation, and is driving a National Flying-fox Strategy and Working Group to ensure a consistent and strategic national approach to flying- fox management and conservation.
Dr. Janine Barrett
Principal Veterinarian (Surveillance) | Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
Janine is a veterinarian with postgraduate qualifications in veterinary pathology, virology, and management. As a policy officer for Biosecurity Queensland, she created Queensland’s policy for managing the exposure of pets to Australian bat lyssavirus based on her PhD research at UQ. Through this work she significantly influenced the national emergency animal response policy for lyssaviruses under AUSVETPLAN.
Linda Collins
Fauna Rescue of South Australia Inc.
Linda has been a volunteer flying-fox rehabilitator, trainer, researcher and consultant for the past 33 years. She has worked in numerous flying-fox colonies throughout NSW and Queensland and with over 30 rehabilitation groups. Linda is currently the flying-fox consultant for Fauna Rescue of SA and stakeholders responsible for supporting the Adelaide colony.
Dr. John Martin
Research Scientist | Taronga Conservation Society Australia
Dr. John Martin is a research scientist at Taronga Conservation Society Australia. His current flying- fox projects involve researching grey-headed flying-foxes including GPS tracking, population monitoring, and assessing habitat preferences. An extension of this research includes the assessment of flying-foxes response to heat stress throughout the eastern States of Australia (http://theconversation.com/killer-climate-tens-of-thousands-of-flying-foxes-dead-in-a-day-23227).
Connect with Leaders in Flying Fox Management
Michelle Jeffrey
Manager Open Space, National Capital Authority
Michelle is the Open Space Manager for the National Capital Authority (NCA), managing the green assets, open spaces, and memorials of Canberra which make the National Capital. Significant assets in this portfolio include the Parliamentary Zone, Anzac Parade, Commonwealth Park, Kings Park, the National Rose Gardens, the Old Parliament House Rose Gardens, Lindsay Pryor National Arboretum, national memorial sites and commemorative spaces, conservation areas, diplomatic sites, outdoor art, fountains, ponds, and event spaces.
Matthew Mo
Saving our Species, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Matthew is a Senior Project Officer working for Saving our Species, the NSW Government’s flagship program for threatened species. His current role involves convening the NSW Flying-fox Consultative Committee and the NSW Flying-fox Land Managers’ Network, as well as representation on a number of working groups. Matthew has led key flying-fox projects including policy work on flying-fox camp management, recent rounds of the Flying-fox Grants Program, support initiatives for wildlife carers and the phasing out of flying-fox shooting in NSW. He’s currently leading a flying-fox stream for the Australian Government’s bushfire recovery funding. He enjoys collaboration and has recently worked with local councils to develop flying-fox camp management case studies, and collaborated with wildlife carers, land managers and scientists to estimate flying-fox mortalities during the 2019-20 extreme heat and pup abandonment events. His work has been published in Australian Zoologist, Pacific Conservation Biology, Australian Mammalogy and Human Dimensions of Wildlife.
Byron Reynolds
Ecologist | Port Macquarie Hastings Council
Hugh Pity
Community Coordinator | Friends of Glebe Wetlands
Hugh Pitty is the Community Coordinator for the Friends of Glebe Wetlands, a local conservation group in Bega on the Far South Coast of NSW. Hugh leads the Friends of Glebe Wetlands as a group of volunteers who conduct monthly flying fox counts of the seasonal Grey-headed flying- foxes that form a breeding camp at the Glebe Park Lagoon each year from around October/November through to April/May. Through this valuable citizen science initiative, Hugh has built a dataset spanning the last eight years (2012 to 2020), which has made a valuable contribution to the National Flying Fox Monitoring Program and also underpinned education about flying foxes in the local community.
Keren Cox-Witton
Senior Project Officer | Wildlife Health Australia
Keren Cox-Witton is the Senior Project Officer at Wildlife Health Australia. She is a veterinarian with an interest in wildlife health and epidemiology and has worked at WHA since 2010. Keren coordinates the WHA Bat Health Focus Group, which has a broad membership and considers bat health issues in the context of biosecurity, public health, domestic animal health and environmental impacts in Australia. Keren’s role at WHA also includes co-ordination of wildlife disease surveillance programs involving zoo- based hospitals and sentinel veterinary clinics, administering a national database of wildlife health information, and maintaining a national dataset for Australian bat lyssavirus.
Anita Gordon
Principal Veterinarian, Pathology | Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
Anita works as a veterinary pathologist at the Qld Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Biosecurity Sciences Laboratory. She has been the Queensland State Co-ordinator for Wildlife Health Australia since 2006.
Maree Treadwell-Kerr
The Spectacled Flying-fox Recovery Team
Maree has a Masters of Wildlife Management and is currently undertaking a higher degree examining societal values for flying foxes by assessing impact of education/interpretation programs, including tourism potential, in changing attitudes toward flying-foxes. She is a joint convenor of the Australasian Bat Society’s (ABS) Flying-fox Expert Group and created and coordinates the annual ABS Australasian Bat Night program, including coordinating the Cairns Bat Festival since 2015. Maree has presented to national conferences of Wildlife Tourism Australia, Australasian Wildlife Management Society, Australasian Bat Society, and Interpretation Australia on the subjects of bat tourism, interpretation and flying-fox management.
Sera Steves
The Spectacled Flying-fox Recovery Team
Sera holds a degree in Biology and Psychology with an Ethology focus and is currently working on her
masters in Zoology and Ecology including research on crocodiles and blossom-bats. Sera has been
in the zoo industry for 12 years working in both Australia and the United States as a zookeeper, animal
trainer and wildlife presenter. Her main focus is birds and reptiles, but bats have been an interest of
hers since she was a child. Sera is promoting bats and tourism using a model developed by Bat
Conservation International in her home state of Texas.
Adam McKeown
Research Officer | CSIRO
Adam McKeown is an ecologist working for CSIRO on a range of ecological and transport related projects. He has worked on flying-fox population and movement ecology questions on all Australian species for 20 years.
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Where Was it Held?
The virtual forum was held on HOPIN, one of the world’s leading all-in-one virtual event platform where attendees can learn, interact, and connect with people.
It was kind of like a “Zoom call” except there was also has a reception area, schedule, user profiles, polling, direct video calling, expo area, sponsor branding, backstage, and a multi-tier chat.
Hosted at Ecosure
The Ecosure team who hosted the flying-fox Forum created a studio-like environment for recording right in our Brisbane office. There is a surprising amount of tech and logistics to host an event like this and we look forward to future live, and perhaps HYBRID (live and virtual) events in the future.
Virtual Backstage
The Flying-fox Forum team were able to bring together speakers from across the country in a virtual backstage. Some organisational firewall restrictions meant that rehearsals were vital to ensure all our remote presenters were able to access the virtual backstage area and create a seamless experience for all who attended.
With Thanks to Our Sponsors
Thanks to our sponsors for supporting flying-fox conservation and management. If you would like to be a sponsor please get in touch!
