This project was a partnership between the bat hospital, CSIRO, Tablelands National Park Volunteers, and Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service. With funding from Natural Heritage Trust and Environmental Protection Authority we were able to employ 2 volunteer coordinators Lisa Dwyer and Ceinwen Edwards to simulate about 2500 'mock bat' foraging events. Spectacled flying foxes do defintely acquire ticks while feeding on wild tobacco bushes. A paper will be published in the near future.

Dennis, A. J., Maclean, J., Edwards, C. and Dwyer, L. (In Prep.) Complex ecological impacts of exotic weeds on native fauna: the case of spectacled flying-foxes, introduced Solanum and paralysis ticks in northern Australia for Conservation Biology.

The next step is a project to look at when Solanum has ripe fruit over the course of the year, in its various microclimates across the Atherton Tablelands. This information will help us provide herbicide spraying recommendations to local government for this noxious pest plant. Unfortunately solanum fruit is an important food source for many animals, and so it is not a clear-cut solution to try to eradicate it from the Tablelands. Nor would it be easily done, as it occurs very widely and propagates itself very readily.