Wildlife workers said bats were fleeing their homes in Sydney and the coast to fly west in a desperate search for food after storms, deforestation and changing weather has led to less flowering eucalypts and fruit trees this year.

Wildlife Information Rescue and Education service workers are reporting that baby bats (flying foxes) are being seen for the first time in Orange and grown bats are in the area three months early - in colder climates than they can handle.

They said it comes as 30 baby bats were found dead in a Bega park last weekend, bats were seen looking for food in daylight in Camden, south of Sydney, this week and while only a couple of baby bats were normally rescued in NSW at this time of year, 130 had been saved this year.

Flying fox carer and WIRES volunteer Louise O’Brien said she had rescued four baby bats in Orange, Bathurst and Sofala in the past few weeks.

“In the 28 years I’ve been doing wildlife work I’ve never rescued flying fox pups in Orange,” Mrs O’Brien said.

“These bats are in deep trouble as there is a statewide maternal starving event happening.”

Mrs O’Brien called the SES, the fire brigade and finally a tree surgeon to rescue a six-week-old bat, she has named Frankie, from a tree in Franklin Street, last Saturday morning.

She said there was clearly a bat colony in the area but it was lying low. “They are just starving, they are just dropping dead. They are being pushed out west. Normally it is too cold for them to be here.”

Mrs O’Brien said that while bats had a bad name for eating fruit from orchards and carrying the lyssavirus which harmed humans, they were “really intelligent animals.”

WIRES flying fox rehabilitator Storm Sanford said: “The fact that flying foxes are being seen and rescued in Western NSW is an indicator of a serious food shortage as they are coastal dwellers and these areas are only part of their range when food sources on the coast have failed.”

The locally-rescued bats are being cared for at PetCare Extraordinaire at Guyong. They are aged between three and seven weeks. Before they reach 14 weeks they will be moved to “creches” in Sydney and on the south coast before release into the wild.