ABSTRACT
Linda has been a volunteer flying-fox rehabilitator, trainer, consultant and researcher for 33 years. She has worked in numerous colonies throughout New South Wales and Queensland with a range of roost canopies including rainforest, Bangalow palms, casuarinas and mangroves. Linda is currently working as a consultant for wildlife care groups and stakeholders responsible for monitoring and managing Adelaide’s colony of Grey-headed Flying-foxes.
Karen commenced her horticultural career as an Apprentice at the Adelaide Botanic Garden in 1987. She has held a variety of roles across the horticultural industry since, including tending the Roma Street Park Lands in Brisbane and working at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Arboretum. While studying for her Bachelor of Science degree Karen specialised in plant physiology and investigated plants in saline environments. Karen has held the role of Horticultural Curator at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since 2006 where she oversees two of the largest tree collections.
Balancing the Botanic Gardens’ business needs and the expanding events calendar is never straightforward, particularly in Botanic Park while meeting the needs of a growing population of a protected animal species. In this session you will be introduced to the Grey-headed Flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus). You will hear about the effect of heat stress on the colony, the measures that have been put in place to reduce the colony’s impact on the living plant collections, and some common myths about the flying foxes will be dispelled.
