News briefs

Research from Griffith University, published in Nature, examined 25 years of data on land‐use change, bat behaviour, and spillover of Hendra virus from bats to horses in subtropical Australia and revealed that human activities are causing bats to adopt behaviours previously linked to short term nutritional stress, and that this change in behaviour is increasing the risk of Hendra virus spillover. Previous correlational studies associate spillover with broad‐scale habitat destruction and encroachment of people into natural landscapes, increasing opportunities for contact between wildlife, domestic animals, and people. The current study highlights that habitat destruction, agriculture and people were important in broadly determining where risk was high, but not simply because encroachment directly led to increased opportunities for contact as previously assumed. Instead, the researchers found that flying foxes responded to land‐use change by shifting their distribution and invoking behaviours that they would normally use to avoid climate‐driven starvation associated with El Niño events, such as feeding on introduced plants in horse paddocks. This was causing them to shift into agricultural areas that did not provide native food over winter. Extensive clearing of forests that flower in winter has led to a reduction in the number of years when abundant flowering occurs, reducing the reliability of this natural source of protection and increasing the risk of spillovers. “We propose that restoration of this critical habitat will restore functioning ecosystems, improve the health of flying foxes, reduce their reliance on urban and agricultural areas, and protect horses and people against spillover of Hendra and other viruses,” said lead author Dr Peggy Eby, from the University of New South Wales.