Voting for the Top 8 is now closed! We’ll be back at 12pm AEST to announce the Top 7 and to open up voting again.
Australia’s only carnivorous bat had a spook-tacular run in 2023’s Australian Mammal of the Year competition. But, after receiving the fewest votes, it’s time to farewell the ghost bat. With massive moves amongst those left on the leaderboard, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll be knocked out next!
Now you’ve got just 22 hours to vote for your favourite in the Top 8, after which we’ll remove the lowest-rated mammal, clear the tallies and start again with the Top 7 at the same time tomorrow. Get behind our mammals and give them a shoutout to your friends to ensure they make it into the next rounds.
After the tally closes each day we’ll scrutineer the votes to ensure that, like last year, passionate supporters haven’t guaranteed their mammal’s place with any anomalous voting.
See you later ghost bat!
Name(s): Ghost bat (Macroderma gigas)
Size: The largest microbat in Australia with a length of 130mm, a wingspan that can reach up to 600mm, and a weight of 160g.
Diet: Carnivore, feeding on animals including small mammals, amphibians, birds, reptiles and insects.
Habitat/range: Commonly found in isolated populations roosting in caves, rocky crevices, and abandoned mining tunnels. Their range spreads across arid and tropical regions of northern Australia.
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Superpower/fun fact: Ghost bats can wait undetected above unsuspecting prey, before swooping down and capturing them with a swift bite to the neck. However, unlike vampires which prefer to drink the blood, ghost bats prefer to eat the entire thing.
While you may have heard of Casper the Friendly Ghost or Nearly-Headless Nick, there is one ghost that you might not have heard of – the mysterious and majestic ghost bat. Like something out of a Mary Shelley or Bram Stoker novel, the ghost bat, a species of false vampire bat, has a prominent leaf nose, elongated ears, and large dark eyes. The ghost bat is Australia’s only carnivorous bat and is also Australia’s largest microbat, boasting a wingspan of up to 60cm. This size, combined with its silvery-grey fur that can appear ghostly in the moonlight, gives this bat its eerie, yet unique name.
Ghost bats are found across northern Australia, living in caves, rocky crevices, and abandoned mining tunnels. They use these refuges because they provide the dark, quiet, and cool environments needed to escape the sun and rest, as well as to breed and raise young. During breeding season, female ghost bats form colonies in large caves and give birth to a single offspring each.
Unlike most Australian bats, which often feed on insects or fruit, ghost bats have a carnivorous diet. They are skilled hunters, foraging in many habitats for small rodents, birds, lizards, and even other bats! They can employ an ambush hunting style – launching down onto prey with a sharp, powerful bite – but they can also scan for prey as they fly using their large eyes and ears to see or hear animals in the area. Ghost bats are also the largest Australian bat to use echolocation. They emit high-frequency sounds that bounce off objects and return, allowing them to navigate in complete darkness.
Ghost bats can travel long distances to hunt and disperse, with examples of bats travelling over 300km in winter and up to 40km in a single night. Adult ghost bats don’t have many predators, with juveniles more likely to be predated by snakes or quolls. However, ghost bats likely compete with owls and other nocturnal predators for food.
Unfortunately, ghost bat populations are declining. The destruction or disruption of caves due to mining or human disturbance, as well as the loss of important foraging habitat due to large fires or grazing contribute to the decline of the species. In some parts of their range, poisonous cane toads have presumably led to the disappearance of ghost bats in areas where they once existed. Where cattle grazing is present, ghost bats are also often snagged in barbed wire fences when flying low, as they can’t detect the thin wires.
As of now, ghost bats are listed as a vulnerable species, but conservation efforts are underway to protect and preserve these flying mammals, including the creation of artificial roosts and the attachment of metal discs to fences to improve the ghost bat’s chance of avoiding them.
Ghost bats are an efficient predator that would make even the ghostbusters nervous. We should not fear though, as they are harmless to humans, and their unique life history highlights the diversity of Australian mammals. But they are also a species that needs our help, to maintain healthy habitats and populations.
In no particular order, here are our Top 8!
Spectacled flying-fox (Pteropus conspicillatus conspicillatus)
With 27.3% of the support, the spectacled flying-fox is the ultimate “Rainforest Rambler”. They can fly 112 km and spread 60,000 seeds in a single night while foraging for food.
Dingo (Canis dingo or Canis familiaris)
Our charismatic but controversial canid made it to the Top 10 with 32.6% of the vote in “Snow Patrol: Alpine Adventurers”.
Dugong (Dugong dugon)
The dugong took out 28.7% of votes in “Under the Sea: Marine Marvels”. They are the only herbivorous mammal that spends all their life in the sea.
Gilbert’s Potoroo (Potorous gilbertii)
The Gilbert’s Potoroo secured 56.5% of support in in “Woodland Wanderers”. After missing from the records for 120 years and thought extinct, they came “back from the dead” when rediscovered in 1994.
Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus)
Having placed second in “Under the Sea: Marine Marvels”, unlike last year, the Australian fur seal collected enough votes overall to make it to the Top 10. They are the largest of all fur seals in the world, with females weighing 78kg and males 220-360kg.
Golden-tipped bat (Phoniscus papuensis)
The golden-tipped bat has made a glittering impression on voters with 46.1% of the votes in “The Cool South: Forest Fossickers”. They roost in the bottom of suspended bird nests, excising a chamber below the nest where they happily freeload.
Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
The platypus has swum to victory in its category, “City Livin’: Urban Neighbours”, collecting 23.3% of the vote. Males have sharp spurs on their hind feet that are connected to a venom gland in their leg.
Mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus)
The mountain pygmy possum scaled to second position in “Snow Patrol: Alpine Adventurers”, but still managed to receive enough votes overall to secure its spot in the Top 10! Did you know they hibernate for 5-7 months every year under the snow, during which they lose half of their body weight.
How does voting work?
“But how does voting work?” you may ask. Don’t worry, it’s super simple.
Voting has now opened for the Top 8 and will remain open until 10:00am AEST tomorrow, Thursday 17 August.
Then, at 12:00pm AEST we’ll announce the mammal that has received the least votes and has been knocked out of the running.
We’ll set the tally back to zero and open up voting for the Top 7 anew. Voting will be open for 22 hours, until 12pm AEST the following day. And repeat!
Each day we’ll whittle away at the list of our most marvellous mammals until the Top 3 left standing are announced on Monday 21 August.
After 3 days of voting we’ll finally put the debate to rest for 2023 and crown Australia’s Mammal of the Year on Thursday 24 August!