100,000 Bats Rain Down Over Queensland

Had no idea bats can't stand the heat. They were thriving in Kakadu when I visited in the mid-90s, then again, it wasn't as hot as parts of Queensland have been in recent weeks.

About 100,000 bats have fallen from the sky and died during a heatwave in Australia that has left the trees and earth littered with dead creatures.

In scenes likened to "an Alfred Hitchock thought bubble", a heatwave across the north-east state of Queensland in recent days caused mass deaths of flying foxes from an estimated 25 colonies.

"It's a horrible, cruel way to die," a conservation worker, Louise Saunders, told The Courier Mail.

"Anything over 43 degrees [Celsius, 109F] and they just fall. We're just picking up those that are just not coping and are humanely euthanising what we can."