Bye bye bats

As a boy I always imagined bats as elusive creatures, occasionally glimpsed flitting by a street light on a winter’s night. They epitomised mystery.

Sydney’s flying foxes have always had a different idea. In the city’s botanical gardens, they hang brazenly from low-hanging trees in the glaring sunlight. I have enjoyed showing this sight to visitors, who are invariably gobsmacked.

I was sad, then, when I heard that the botanicals bat colony will shortly be no more. They are being “dispersed” because they are damaging the flora, which is understandable if regrettable.

I popped down the other day with my mum and the Bs to say farewell. Nobody knows where the bats will end up after the dispersal begins in a fortnight, but I hope it is a place where I can go and visit them.