Mystery syndrome killing rainbow lorikeets and flying foxes leaves scientists baffled
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‘The animals that don’t die need total nursing care,’ wildlife rescuer says, ahead of a potential spike in cases in coming weeks. Thousands of rainbow lorikeets and hundreds of flying foxes have been hospitalised in Queensland in the past year with a mysterious paralysis that can affect the animals’ ability to fly, swallow and even breathe.
![[A vet examines a lorrikeet]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bed567936f769940fb1f032e5241c02c5be9f658/0_0_3543_2363/master/3543.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Lorikeet paralysis syndrome has struck birds in Queensland and New South Wales since at least 2012, and a similar syndrome was identified in flying foxes five years ago. Scientists don’t yet know whether the two syndromes have the same cause, but they overlap geographically and cases occur seasonally, spiking each December and January.
In 2024, the RSPCA admitted 1,079 flying foxes to its wildlife hospital in Wacol, Brisbane, and nearly 8,000 lorikeets across two facilities, said a wildlife veterinary director at the hospital, Dr Tim Portas. “Historically, we would see 2,600 lorikeets and 200 flying foxes in any given year,” Portas said.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. Not all the admissions last year were due to the syndromes but Portas said “the most common reason that we have lorikeets admitted to us, and certainly that increase with the flying fox [numbers], was predominantly due to paralysis syndrome”.
