The grounds of the Country Club, including the tennis courts, have been somewhat overtaken with thousands of these native marsupials who, paradoxically are on the ‘Vulnerable’ species list, as more and more of their native habitat, particularly on the East Coast, is cleared for development.

That, according to local NPWS officers, is the reason they have been migrating areas within the Central West. 

They feed at night and can travel in a radius of 30kms, cruising at around 25kms p/h to hunt for food, they eat mainly nectar and pollen of eucalyptus, banksias and melaleucas and rain forest fruit, they will also attack orchards and gardens for food.

Members of the community are concerned about health risks as one resident recently located a number of the flying foxes close to the Grenfell Pre-School, some of which were dead on electricity lines.

Bat Lyssavirus is rare but can be transmitted by a bite or a scratch from an infected bat to a human. However, the smell of the animals is not a health alert and they are generally not a health risk.

With this in mind, a number of residents are fed-up with the droppings left behind after the nightly feeds, not to mention the noise of the furry little creatures that is extremely loud in such plague proportions. Residents that are being affected by the presence of the plague say it is becoming quite time-consuming, not to mention especially smelly, cleaning up after them.