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The emotional and physical toll on volunteers has been brutal over the past week. Photos: Supplied<\/p>\nBat Rescue SA volunteers have been working around the clock to collect bats \u2013 many juveniles \u2013 after they died in Adelaide parklands over two 40-degree-plus days this week.<\/p>\n
The charity\u2019s chairperson Sue Westover said about 75 volunteers worked tirelessly to collect hundreds of corpses and to also care for sick and injured bats, braving the scorching heatwave \u2013 and she believed thousands would have perished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe juveniles find it very difficult,\u201d she said, adding that the mass deaths were taking their toll on rescuers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost probably a good couple of thousand juveniles in the last two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be heading up there because, unfortunately, they still die when they\u2019re up in the tree, and they can stay up there for months.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emotional and physical toll on volunteers has been brutal over the past week. Photos: Supplied<\/p>\n
This morning, volunteers found a deceased mother with a two-week-old baby attached to her, still alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now we\u2019ve got a two-week-old baby. The mums that are still carrying babies get overheated and they die as well, while their babies are still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Westover said volunteers picked up 97 deceased bats on Wednesday alone, each weighed and measured for scientific research into bat population heat stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere would have been hundreds (also) picked up by the Botanic Garden staff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven this morning as we speak, there are bats all across the colony that have been picked up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organisation, which runs on community donations as a charity, operates across South Australia, supporting the colony in the Botanic Gardens and surrounding parklands as well as populations at Port Pirie, Kuitpo Forest, Mount Crawford and even Roxby Downs.<\/p>\n
Westover \u2013 who has more than three decades of experience in caring for Australian wildlife \u2013 said spring and summer was the organisation\u2019s busiest period.<\/p>\n
Volunteers not only rescue bats, but also care for them at home, with costs for food and medicine in the thousands during an extreme heat event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got two great big aviaries and lots of little hospital cages and incubators,\u201d Westover said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve probably got about 30 to 35 bats here at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the state government and Botanic Gardens have been supportive of the organisation and assisting the bat populations in general, with sprinklers installed in the canopies of colony trees in the parklands.<\/p>\n
But the emotional and physical toll on volunteers has been brutal over the past week, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do colony checks three to four times a day. The last two days we\u2019ve been in there constantly from morning till night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does affect our rescuers. We all have shed a few tears on the ground, but we suck it up and get on and save the ones we can save.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the SA Country Fire Service rushed to a scrub fire on Maggea Road 4km south-east of Waikerie in the Riverland on Friday.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the CFS said the quick response of 15 CFS volunteers on three trucks successfully stopped the fire from spreading to surrounding scrub and neighbouring properties.<\/p>\n
Crews were expected to remain on scene to ensure the fire was completely extinguished, with heightened fire weather predicted throughout the afternoon.<\/p>\n
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