SYDNEY – This is the other-side-of-the-world counterpoint to the bizarre sight of frozen iguanas in last week’s deep freeze in the US: Hundreds of bats in Australia are essentially boiling to death in the nation’s extreme heat.
A conservation group near Sydney, where temperatures recently reached 117 degrees, says that more than 400 large bats known as flying foxes were found dead, reports National Geographic. The problem is dehydration, explains one expert on the species. “They can’t cool their body down at that point,” he says. “In a way, they’re kind of boiling in their bodies.”
The group Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown has been posting images of the creatures, along with images of volunteers scrambling to rescue those still alive and rehydrate them, notes the Guardian.
“It was unbelievable,” says one volunteer. “I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before.”
This article originally appeared on Newser: Australia Is So Hot That Bats Are ‘Boiling’
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