Flying foxes are the worlds largest bats and experience mass mortality events during extreme heat, with climate change increasing frequency and severity.
Heat events cause hyperthermia, disorientation, and death in roosting colonies unable to reach water. Pups falling from trees are highly vulnerable to dehydration and hypothermia after heat stress. Adult bats surviving heat events may have reduced reproductive success. Heat mortality events have killed millions of bats over recent decades. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of these events.