Australian Bureau of Meteorology temperature map for Saturday 15 November 2014
The Northern Star in print and online, 18 November 2014:
* THOUSANDS of flying foxes are dead and hundreds of young babies have been left orphaned after heat stroke savaged the Casino colony at the weekend.
WIRES started monitoring the colony early on Saturday, but as the temperature rose and the humidity fell, the bats started to die.
At about 1pm bats started falling out of the trees; many were dead before they hit the ground.
The WIRES ground crew of volunteers gave the babies a hydrating injection before being transported to makeshift hospitals in homes in Casino, managing to save about 450 baby bats or "pups".
Emergency WIRES teams from neighbouring regions arrived in Casino to help deal with the catastrophe. The pups will be reared by WIRES carers before being released back into the wild.
* THE flying fox death toll at Casino has been revised upwards to more than 3000 and could be as high as 5000, WIRES Northern Rivers estimates.
Temperatures hit record highs at Casino over the weekend, hitting 44.1°C on Saturday afternoon, preliminary statistics from the Bureau of Meteorology reveal.
The Northern Star: Dee Hartin Photography
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