Colac Otway Shire Council and the Colac Botanical Gardens need to rethink how they view protected and threatened native wildlife species. 

Over the last 5 years they have insisted on dispersing renamed to nudging to make it seem less harassing. 

It's time for Colac to rethink what they are doing to a state and federally listed threatened species. These animals need to be protected at all costs. The Grey Headed Flying Fox is a keystone species and the only long distance pollinators of our hardwood eucalyptus forests.

This " nudging " is causing extreme stress to the individual animals coming in from a night of flying possibly 30kms or more to come to sleep. They are "scared" until they are nudged to other trees on site. The council say they are protecting heritage trees (mostly non native trees). Noting most of the adult female Flying Foxes are likely to be pregnant.

It's time for Colac to rethink protecting non-native individual trees, and protect a entire species that is threatened to extinction. 

This colony site always leave coming into the winter months, this is nothing but harrassment of individual animals. 

Being unable to sleep and kept awake is a form of torture yet the Colac Otway Shire say the bats are not impacted ?

The Colac Otway Shire state they will not stop unless there is an injury to the animal. Should it take an injury or death of an animal for the local council to stop the torture of a threatened species? 

It's time for Colac Otway Shire to be forward thinking and show leadership more suited to the times we live in.

As per the March 2021 National Recovery Plan for the Grey-headed Flying-fox Pteropus poliocephalus

Attempts to remove Grey-headed flying-foxes from camps should only be considered as a last resort management action. Comprehensive attempts improving co-existence between people and flying-foxes and mitigating flying-fox impacts should be conducted prior to any consideration to move on individuals is made or any reduction of their roosting habitat is considered. While there may be some situations where comprehensive mitigation measures don’t work and proposals to relocate the flying-foxes are made, these actions need to be carefully managed. The risks associated with such actions need to be fully understood and disclosed and community expectations need to be realistic and managed.

Every attempt should be made to resolve conflict through mediation and public education. Camp management plans should be developed in conjunction with the community and plans should include both long-term and short-term strategies for ameliorating conflict. Land management authorities should identify camps that are potential sites of conflict and initiate programs of community engagement and public education to reduce the potential for future disputes. Where concerns have been raised, authorities should respond rapidly by providing advice and information to those involved.