Roosting Ecology of the Grey-headed Flying Fox: Spatial Dispersion in a Summer Camp

A colony of Grey-headed flying foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia was studied over a ten-week period before, during and after the mating season to assess spatial distribution of individuals, specifically investigating age and sex segregation. Ground censusing techniques were used to determine weekly estimates of the numbers of bats in the colony and numbers of bats within each tree. Surveys were used to document sexes and ages of bats occupying each tree. Unlike Nelson’s (1965) findings, the social structure of the colony was based not on mating strategies of individual bats but on age and sex. Adult and subadult bats clearly segregated within the colony with adult bats roosting in significantly taller trees than non-adult (subadult and juvenile) bats. Among both adults and subadults, bats also segregated by sex, except during the mating season.