Impact assessment of the Australian 2019-20 megafires on roost sites of the vulnerable grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)

Bushfires are a natural component of the ecology of many landscapes, but megafires such as those experienced in Australia between July 2019 and April 2020 have substantial direct and indirect impacts on wildlife. Following these megafires, bushfires have begun to be considered a significant emerging threat to the vulnerable grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus). In this study, we quantified the impact of the 2019-20 megafires on all known roost locations of the species by (1) determining the number of roosts within burnt areas represented by three fire severity mapping products, (2) classifying burnt roosts according to the severity with which they burnt, and (3) examining the distribution of distances to the nearest burnt areas for unburnt roosts. Our findings indicate that the impacts of the 2019-20 megafires on roosting habitat of the grey-headed flying-fox have hitherto been underestimated. Of 874 known grey-headed flying-fox roosts, we found that 134 roosts were situated ..., This dataset involves the locations of 874 grey-headed flying-fox roost locations, and their spatial relationship to three fire severity mapping products., , # Impact assessment of the Australian 2019-20 megafires on roost sites of the vulnerable grey-headed flying-fox (*Pteropus poliocephalus*)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fbg79cp2z](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fbg79cp2z)

The dataset consists of an excel spreadsheet listing all known grey-headed flying-fox roost locations prior to the 2019-20 megafires in Australia.

## Description of the data and file structure

The dataset consists of:

* the National flying-fox monitoring program number of the flying-fox roost location (if applicable; NFFMPCampID),
* the State the roost is in (State),
* the latitude and longitude location of the roost site (Lat, Long),
* the roost type, which refers to whether the roost has been ground-truthed or whether it has been identified from telemetry data but not yet ground-truthed (Type),
* the class of the roost; ‘Class 1’ roosts were visited by a single tracked individual during a single day; ‘Class 2’ roosts were visited by a single tracked individual o...