More than 400 animals have died in one colony alone as temperatures soar above 47C, causing exhaustion and dehydration 
 
 A colony of flying foxes has been nearly wiped out by extreme heat in Campbelltown in south-west Sydney, according to environmentalists. 
 
 The Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown campaign posted a series of images to Facebook showing the corpses of the animals lying in the ground, apparently after they had died from dehydration in the soaring temperatures. The group say more than 400 of the animals were lost, many of them juveniles. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A mound of dead flying foxes in Campbelltown, Australia. Photograph: Facebook/Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown 
 
 Volunteers have been working to save the animals, rehydrating them and taking them to places where they can be kept cool. Temperatures in Sydney reached a 80-year record high of 47.3C on Sunday. 
 
 Cate Ryan, one of the first volunteers on the scene, told media “it was unbelievable. I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A rescued flying fox in Campbelltown, New South Wales. Photograph: Facebook/Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown 
 
 The campaign group also regularly post information about why protecting the species is so important for the local habitat. “Flying foxes are intelligent and remarkable,” the group says. “These unique animals help regenerate our forests and keep ecosystems healthy through pollination and seed dispersal. They don’t use sonar like smaller, insect-eating bats; only their eyes and ears, like us. They see as well as a cat at night and are just about as smart. Flying foxes are foresters keeping the eco-system together. If we are to keep the remnants of our forests healthy, we need the flying foxes. The two are inseparable.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A volunteer helps rescue flying foxes in Campbelltown. Photograph: Facebook/Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown 
 
 The environmental campaign group have also been hosing down koalas to keep them cool. 

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 While the Northern Hemisphere has been visited by a low-hanging polar vortex, blizzards, and wintry cyclones, the Southern Hemisphere is feeling some very different extremes. 
 
 Australia is experiencing nearly record high temperatures reaching just over 116 degrees Fahrenheit. It's been so hot that asphalt melted on a stretch of highway, and local news outlets reported a surge in attendance at Australian beaches as residents struggle to escape dangers like heat exhaustion and heat stroke. 
 
 Australian wildlife has also been impacted by the intense heat. 
 
 According to conservation group Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown, which operates just south of Sydney, more than 400 flying foxes from a local bat colony were found dead, possibly due to the heat. Pictures show rows of flying fox bodies collected from trees or where they were found after dropping to the ground. 
 
 Flying foxes are a type of large bat, and six species can be found in Australia. The Australian government officially lists one of those species as critically endangered and two others as vulnerable, while some species can be found in abundance and have at times been labeled a nuisance. 
 
 World's Weirdest: Flying Foxes 
 
 As a species, flying foxes help maintain a healthy ecosystem, because they are one of the country's most active pollinators. It's unclear if the die-off will impact their populations overall. But speaking with Australian TV station Sky News, a spokesperson from the Campbelltown group predicted that thousands could succumb to the heat before the summer's end. 
 
 Kate Ryan, a Campbelltown flying fox colony manager, told local outlet Macarthur Advertiser that the heat has deadly impacts on the animals' brains. 
 
 “It would be like standing in the middle of a sandpit with no shade," she said of being a flying fox roosting in a tree. 
 
 Scott Heinrich, director of the Flying Fox Conservation Fund, says many flying foxes drop from trees because of dehydration. In 2014, the last time Australia experienced comparable temperatures, more than 45,000 flying foxes are estimated to have died from the heat. 
 
 "They can't cool their body down at that point," Heinrich says. "In a way, they're kind of boiling in their bodies." 
 
 The flying mammals aren't the only Australian animals struggling with the heat. 
 
 Wildlife groups have been actively spraying down koalas that are perched in trees. Koalas are easily startled by people, so the Melbourne-based Koala Clancy Foundation has been promoting a technique that entails spraying koalas from long distances with a specific type of quiet hose. 
 
 Koalas Are Suddenly Behaving Strangely. Why? 
 
 It's unclear if any koalas have died in this heatwave, but the animals have increasingly struggled with hot, dry Australian summers, and some experts fear that climate change could exacerbate the problem. 
 
 Koalas primarily hydrate by eating water-filled eucalyptus leaves, and the trees are among their most important habitats. However, University of Sydney researchers concluded last March that hotter, drier conditions were drying out leaves and forcing koalas from trees. 
 
 “Increasing hot and dry conditions will mean more droughts and heat waves affecting the koalas’ habitat,” Valentina Mella, a University of Sydney postdoctoral researcher, said at the time. 
 
 In 2013, National Geographic pondered whether Australia was the face of climate change to come. The research that has since followed makes this prediction seem increasingly likely. 
 
 Australia released a State of the Climate report in 2016 that shows surface and ocean warming of a mean one degree Celsius in the country since 1910. The report also found that rainfall decreased by 19 percent since 1970 and extreme heatwaves had increased in both frequency and intensity. 
 
 Just last October, a study from the Australian National University in Canberra predicted that the country could see summer temperatures reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit by 2040. 
 
 In addition to the animals taken in by wildlife officials, Australian residents have posted comments on the rescue groups' update posts claiming that kookaburras and pygmy possums were observed drinking from backyard birdbaths or hiding under homes for shade. Animals are also susceptible to burning their paws if they walk on hot asphalt.
– This is the other-side-of-the-world counterpoint to the bizarre sight of frozen iguanas in last week's deep freeze in the US: Hundreds of bats in Australia are essentially boiling to death in the nation's extreme heat. A conservation group near Sydney, where temperatures recently reached 117 degrees, says that more than 400 large bats known as flying foxes were found dead, reports National Geographic. The problem is dehydration, explains one expert on the species. "They can't cool their body down at that point," he says. "In a way, they're kind of boiling in their bodies." The group Help Save the Wildlife and Bushlands in Campbelltown has been posting images of the creatures, along with images of volunteers scrambling to rescue those still alive and rehydrate them, notes the Guardian. "It was unbelievable," says one volunteer. "I saw a lot of dead bats on the ground and others were close to the ground and dying. I have never seen anything like it before.”