IT WAS a disastrous day for flying foxes. On 12 January 2002, at least 3500 of these fruit bats dropped dead from heat exhaustion as temperatures along Australia’s eastern coast rose to almost 43 °C, some 14 °C higher than normal for that time of year.
Stefan Klose of the University of Ulm in Germany and colleagues have been analysing the effects of extreme temperatures and the threat they pose to species survival. They conclude that if warming continues unabated, grey-headed flying foxes and black flying foxes face extinction “this century” (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1385).…
