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Thread: Electrocuted Flying-fox

  1. #1
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    Default Electrocuted Flying-fox

    Our quest to light up our lives has a very different and tragic effect on the lives of these Fruit bats. I have not seen any other species getting electrocuted so often and in such numbers as the flying fox, the exception might be humans of course.
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    Although birds do get electrocuted they usually land on one line and take off from it. Fruit bats get electrocuted when they reach out to move from one line to the other using their wing digits as they do from branch to branch. Their nocturnal flying habit also adds to this. Ive heard about people using electrical girds in fruit orchards to electrocute flying foxes as they are considered to be a pest. In some places they are eaten as a cure for asthama.
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    The role of the flying fox as an effective pollinator of our orchards and predator of many pest insect species is hardly acknowledged. Maybe the case can be presented for an effective solution to prevent this to the experts with the economics of the losses caused by power outages due to bird electrocution, if not the plight of a helpless species.

    Rgds
    Roopak
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    This is very unfortunate. We humans are harming our fellow species in so many ways. Not many people will be aware of the importance of this species in the eco-cycle. Presently only the big mammals are in focus and other smaller species are getting affected and nothing is done to save them . Thanks for sharing this information.
    Regards,
    Mrudul Godbole

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    Two of the wires seems to be very close to each other. I am surprised why it is so. I have seen bats electrocuted in many places in the North in the hills as well as in South. Perhaps we are becoming cynical and have taken all these deaths for granted. One solution is underground cabling of power lines. It is covered in the latest june issue of IndiaWilds Newsletter http://www.indiawilds.com/diary/indi...ol-5-issue-vi/

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    "However, I learned quite a few things about flying fox meat from these men. Considering how common they are, the market value of these bats is surprising - a freshly killed (or live) specimen in good condition can fetch over a rupee [1954 Price]. Apart from the reputed medicinal potency of the blood, the flesh is said to be of special value to consumptives and people suffering from debility. I was assured that it was the skin that smelled so horribly and a properly skinned and roasted fruit bat had no smell and tasted rather like chicken, only more so.

    A hair-oil boiled with flying fox blood is useless for baldness 'experto crede', but wish some nutrition research enthusiast would work out the food value of the flesh -it is quite likely to be high if the exclusive diet on which it has grown is an indication. I know this wish sounds gruesome but then I have an economical mind.

    Flying foxes are regarded everywhere as unmitigated pests and scientific naturalists have recently recommended the use of explosives at the roosting trees as a sound eradicative measure, blowing up the bats en masse. To many, that may seem even more gruesome, and anyway it is a waste of good meat if fruit bats are as nourishing as they are said to be."
    -M.Krishnan
    (This was first published on 4 July 1954 in the Sunday Statesman)

    Flying foxes have survived till today because the views of naturalists were listened to and respected. Despite all our present day ills, something good will be done if properly represented.

    Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

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