With families flocking to Cook Park during the Easter long weekend, the issue of the bats has once again become a talking point.
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Mayor Reg Kidd said he went to the park on Sunday where he saw "huge numbers of people in the park" who had to avoid the area where the bats were.
Cr Kidd said he was approached daily by people who had advice regarding the issue from those who wanted to see the bats gone, as well as those who wanted to ensure the endangered species were protected.
"It's driving me batty," Cr Kidd said.
It's a public area, you cannot go and shoot them, you wouldn't get the licence and it's not going to do anything here.
- Reg Kidd
One person who has no plan to return to the park while the bats remain is Parkes resident Tim Holt, who raised the issue with the council two years ago.
"When I first saw it, there was only one tree with about 100 bats in it, but now they are making a mess of it," Mr Holt said.
Mr Holt used to regularly visit the park to have lunch with his family until he sent Orange City Council a letter about the bats in 2017 and received a reply thanking him for his "uneducated and ill-conceived views of flying fox camps and the species in general" from a member of council staff.
"I was that disgusted with [the author's] attitude," Mr Holt said.
Mr Holt initially wrote to the council saying, "I have spent many lunch break [sic] in your beautiful Cook Park over the last 10 years but last week I was disgusted and shocked when I saw the trees are nesting stinking bats".
He warned about the consequences and damage to trees that would take place in the following years using the destruction of the trees in Singleton's Burdekin Park as an example of what could occur.
However, he also referenced shooting bats with a 12-gauge shotgun when he was a teenager and said "tell the do gooders to go to hell".
The council reply said flying foxes had established temporary camps in Orange since 2010.
"Generally by May each year the climatic conditions are too cold to support these warm-blooded mammals and they migrate elsewhere within the state," the letter continued.
It also went into detail about why the flying foxes were listed as a threatened species.
"Maybe the community should be grateful that you have put your 12-gage [sic] shotgun away," it stated along with a message about education and conservation.
Cr Kidd said the council had a management plan but it was created eight years ago, so he wanted to approach the Environmental Protection Authority and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to discuss methods of dispersal without harming the bats.
He is interested in looking at strobe lighting, but dismissed people who told him to shoot the animals.
"It's a public area, you cannot go and shoot them, you wouldn't get the licence and it's not going to do anything here," Cr Kidd said.
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