Residents plagued by bats in Maitland’s Sempill and Hannan streets are happy about the hot weather.
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That’s because bats don’t like temperatures in the high 30s.
The hot weather in Maitland in the past few days has not taken its toll of the bat population as it did in Casino recently, where 5000 of the creatures dropped dead from the heat.
But several hundred still dangle from trees in Maitland streets, where a few weeks ago the bat population was estimated at 1000.
With the needle nudging the high mark near 40 degrees, the bats in Maitland have been looking for food in other places too.
And the heat has made the bats much quieter.
“Good things are happening in the heat,” Len Chenery of Sempill Street said yesterday.
“The bats in our streets are not dropping off, but many are moving into higher trees to try to get a bit of relief.
“They used to be quite low down around my place, but now they are hanging from the [banyan] trees, which are much taller than their previous homes,” Mr Chenery said.
“The [banyan] trees also provide [the bats] better shelter with their big trunks.”
