France leaning towards far-left suspects behind rail sabotage, minister says

NO COMMUNIQUE NO CLUE

SNCF railway workers and law enforcement officers work at the site where vandals targeted France's high-speed train network with a series of coordinated actions that brought major disruption, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, in Croisilles, northern France July 26, 2024.

July 29, 2024 

PARIS — France is leaning towards the likelihood that far-left extremists were behind last week's sabotage of the country's SNCF rail network — which coincided with the Olympic Games opening ceremony, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Saboteurs struck France's high-speed train network on Friday with pre-dawn attacks on signal substations and cables at critical points, causing travel chaos hours before the opening ceremony.

"We have identified the profiles of several people," Darmanin told France 2 TV, regarding the hunt for those saboteurs. He added that the saboteurs' mode of operation bore the hallmarks of far-left extremists, without providing examples.

All trains were back up and running by Monday morning after teams worked around the clock over the weekend to fix the damage, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said on RTL radio.

Overall 800,000 people faced travel disruptions because of the attacks, including 100,000 people whose trains had to be cancelled outright, he said, adding the cost to the state-owned rail operator SNCF would be considerable.

Fibre optic networks 'sabotaged' in parts of France: police

Ultra-left activist arrested at railway site

July 29, 2024| AFP |

An employee checks the connections of the various machines running on the train networks in Vald' Yerres.

The fibre optic networks of several telecommunications operators have been "sabotaged" in six areas of France but Paris is not affected, police said on Monday.

The incident occurred three days after coordinated acts of sabotage paralysed high-speed train services hours before the Olympics opening ceremony, disrupting travel for hundreds of thousands of people.

Ultra-left activist arrested at railway site

Police sources also said that an ultra-left activist was arrested at a railway site after the recent sabotage attacks. No further details were immediately available.

THEY USED TO BE BFF

Israel calls for Turkey to be expelled from NATO

Following the threats made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Israel is calling for consequences. NATO must exclude Turkey, demands Foreign Minister Israel Katz.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Tuesday, 30 July 2024

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has called on NATO to exclude Turkey as a member. Katz based this on a speech by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who threatened military intervention in Israel at an event organised by his ruling AKP party on Sunday evening. Just as Turkey intervened in Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya, it would do the same with Israel, Erdoğan said, without explaining specific plans.

Erdoğan was referring to the war against Armenia’s Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), where Turkey supported the aggressor Azerbaijan with drones, among other things. In the civil war in Libya, Ankara is supporting the internationally recognised government with military equipment and personnel. Erdoğan left it open in his speech what form support for the Palestinians might take, but said: ‘We must be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things in Palestine.’

Erdoğan's statements were sharply criticised in Israel. “In light of Turkish President Erdoğan's threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, Foreign Minister Israel Katz instructed his diplomats to urgently contact all NATO members to condemn Turkey and demand its expulsion from the alliance,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced.

"Erdoğan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatening to attack Israel. He should only remember what happened there and how it ended,’ Katz wrote on X in the wake of Erdoğan’s threats.

In 2003, US troops invaded Iraq. The military invasion led to the overthrow of the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Three years later, Hussein was executed for massacring the Kurdish and Shiite Arab population.

Relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated since the start of the Gaza war last October. Erdoğan regards Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, as a resistance group, while most NATO countries and Israel see it as a terrorist militia.

Turkish parliament approves controversial euthanasia law for stray dogs

The article authorizing the euthanasia of stray dogs was passed despite objections from animal rights groups and the opposition. The rest of the bill is expected to be voted today.


ANF
ANKARA
Tuesday, 30 July 2024

The Turkish parliament approved the controversial proposal for the euthanasia of stray dogs as part of the new "Animal Protection Law" amendment.

The first five articles of the 17-article law proposal were passed by the General Assembly early on Tuesday and discussions on the remaining articles are scheduled to resume at 2 pm local time.

The most contentious article is number 5, which allows for the euthanasia of stray dogs. It was passed in the 14th hour of discussions despite opposition efforts to remove it. The opposition's motions to exclude the euthanasia provision were rejected.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) aims to pass the bill before the parliament's recess on 1 August.

Members of civil society organizations, professional associations, animal rights activists, and some opposition MPs gathered in Ankara’s Anıtpark on Monday as the General Assembly session commenced.

DEM Party MP Perihan Koca also criticized the bill, calling it "a massacre law." She added: "You manipulated the public by saying 'euthanasia is being removed,' but you are bringing euthanasia back in the worst form."

YRJ and YRA protest the attacks by Iran and the KDP

YRJ and YRA protested against the KDP's imprisonment of journalist Sileman Ehmed and Iran's death penalty sentences against Pakshan Azizi and Sharifa Mohammadi.


ANF
NEWS DESK
Tuesday, 30 July 2024

The Women's Press Union (YRJ) and the Free Press Union (YRA) protested against the death sentence handed down by the Iranian state to journalist Pakshan Azizi and activist Sharifa Mohammadi and the 3-year prison sentence given to journalist Sileman Ehmed by the KDP judiciary.

YRJ and YRA made a press statement at the Reading Garden in Qamishlo in Cizire Canton with the participation of journalists from different regions of Northern and Eastern Syria.

The press statement read by YRJ Executive Board member Newroz Demhat said: “The occupying and genocidal regime of Iran is trying to intimidate women, libertarian peoples and dissenting individuals. With executions, it aims to prevent the freedom demands of peoples and women.”

“The spirit of resistance shaped by the ‘Jin Jiyan Azadî’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) uprising echoed around the world and became the greatest fear of Iran's male-dominated, sexist and religious system. Due to this fear, the Iranian regime sentenced the ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ uprising activist to death,” the statement said.

The statement continued: “As the colleagues of those targeted by Iran and the KDP, we condemn the decisions of the Iranian regime and the KDP. The demand for freedom is everyone's right. Because the collaborative mentality fears the stance of the free press.”

“We call on the democratic, libertarian and oppositional media to be the voice of these prisoners of freedom on trial,” the statement concluded.

‘Kurdistani parties and movements must defend Kurdistan against occupation’

Syrian Contemporary Democratic Party Representative Heyfa Mehmud criticised the KDP's support for the Turkish invasion of Southern Kurdistan and called on all Kurdistani movements, parties and formations to defend Kurdistan.


NÛJIYAN ADAR
QAMISHLO
Tuesday, 30 July 2024

On 22 July, 35 political parties and civil society organisations in Northern and Eastern Syria issued a joint statement on the incessant attacks of the occupying Turkish state against Northern and Eastern Syria and Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq). One of these political parties was the Syrian Contemporary Democratic Party. Heyfa Mehmud, a representative of the party, spoke to ANF about the occupation campaign of the Turkish state in the Kurdistan territory.

'Turkish attacks encouraged by the approval and silence of the Iraqi government'

“There is no one who does not know the history of the formation of the Turkish state. They have a history of building their existence on the destruction of peoples. The Ottoman state occupied the lands of Kurdistan for 400 years. Ignoring the borders drawn during the collapse of the Ottoman state and the First World War, the Turkish state is in an effort to occupy Northern and Eastern Syria and Southern Kurdistan. In the 21st century, the attacks of the Turkish state are expanding and increasing. The attacks against Southern Kurdistan have been encouraged by the approval and silence of the Iraqi government. The Turkish state, with ISIS gangs behind it, has thus expanded its invasion and annexation attacks,” Heyfa Mehmud said, underlining that they will not take a stand against these attacks.

'Support by the KDP and Iraqi government causes the attacks to spread and continue'

Regarding the Turkish state's troop and mercenary deployment to Southern Kurdistan, Heyfa Mehmud said: “The territory of Southern Kurdistan is being occupied by the Turkish state and ISIS gangs. The deployment of gangs to Southern Kurdistan has been documented by many media outlets. Unfortunately, the KDP and the Iraqi government have provided more than enough support to the Turkish state, causing the Turkish state's attacks to spread and continue. It is certain that the Turkish state puts pressure on Iraq and Southern Kurdistan. But if there were no common interests, this would not be the result. While the Iraqi government and Southern Kurdistan left the people of northern Iraq and Shengal alone and fled in the face of ISIS attacks, the guerrilla stood by the people, from Mosul to Shengal. Again, YPG-YPJ stood by the people, from Northern-Eastern Syria to Shengal. YPG-YPJ put an end to the physical existence of ISIS in Northern and Eastern Syria. The KDP acted according to its own interests, while it should have stood by the struggle against the Turkish state and ISIS. The KDP's support for the Turkish state is not a first. This support has always continued since the past. By supporting the attacks of the Turkish state today, it wants to break the power of the guerrilla.”

'Deployment of ISIS indicates the support of Iraqi and the Southern Kurdistan governments'

Commenting on the silence of the Iraqi government and the KDP after the Turkish state transferred ISIS gangs to Southern Kurdistan, Heyfa Mehmud continued: "The presence and deployment of ISIS, which was physically defeated and destroyed in Baxoz in 2019, in Southern Kurdistan now indicates that the governments of Iraq and Southern Kurdistan also have a connection with ISIS gangs. I do not mean that this connection is in the sense of meeting a military logistics need. Yet, the fact that their headquarters are established there, and their leaders live there reveals this connection. After the physical eradication of ISIS in Northern and Eastern Syria, the neighbouring states' embrace of ISIS leads to the revival of ISIS again. The SDF-YPG-YPJ waged a great struggle against the ISIS gangs that plague the world and ended their existence in Northern and Eastern Syria. Unfortunately, these states are helping ISIS to revive again."

'Turkish attacks carried out in line with interstate alliances'

Heyfa Mehmud stated that the attacks of the Turkish state against Northern and Eastern Syria and Southern Kurdistan were carried out in line with interstate alliances and said: “The Turkish state is the enemy of the peoples. But it does not have the power to carry out these attacks alone. KDP introduces and shows itself as a Kurdistani party. The KDP should not have taken this attitude against these attacks. The KDP officially and openly paves the way for the Turkish state to occupy the territory of Southern Kurdistan. On the contrary, it should have taken a hard and sharp stance. Since it calls itself a Kurdistani movement, it should have approached the Turkish state with the duty and responsibility to protect and defend all parts of Kurdistan and the Kurdish people instead of opening the door of Southern Kurdistan because the Turkish state, the enemy of the peoples, wants to destroy the Kurdish people."

Emphasising that the occupation and annexation policy against the four parts of Kurdistan must be ended, Heyfa Mehmud concluded: “Those who consider themselves as a Kurdistani movement, party and formation must defend and protect Kurdistan and the Kurdish people.”

PYD: People of Kurdistan should show common reaction against Turkish occupation

The co-chairs of the PYD in Girê Spî said that the people of Kurdistan should show common reaction against the Turkish occupation and the betrayal of the KDP.


ANF
AIN ISSA
Tuesday, 30 July 2024

The Turkish army continues its attacks in South Kurdistan with the cooperation of the KDP. Turkey is attacking guerrilla forces in the Medya Defense Areas. Reactions continue to rise from many segments of society against the betrayal of the Turkish state and the KDP.

The co-chairs of the PYD in Girê Spî, Sabri Nebo and Bêrivan İsmaîl, spoke to ANHA about the attacks and the KDP’s stance of betrayal.

Stating that they support the resistance put up by the HPG and YJA-STAR against the genocide and occupation attacks, Sabri Nebo said: "I call on the people of Kurdistan to raise the level of struggle. With resistance, we will thwart the genocidal attacks and the treacherous plans of the KDP. The Baghdad government must take a serious stance against the violation of its sovereignty on Iraqi lands and stop this violation."

Bêrîvan İsmail said: "The occupying Turkish state is using the KDP as a tool to implement its plans to occupy the Northern and Eastern Syrian Region and to destroy the Democratic Nation project. The people of South Kurdistan must be prepared for the attacks. Just as they did in Syria, the Turkish state and the KDP are now sending ISIS mercenaries to South Kurdistan and trying to change the demographic structure of the region. The people must see how dangerous these plans are and must oppose them.

We call on everyone to support the heroically resisting guerrillas. We condemn the betrayal of the KDP. We must increase the struggle and resistance until the invasion plans are thwarted."

FASCIST TURKIYE 

11 people sent to prison for dancing at weddings with Kurdish songs

Racist and fascist practices against Kurds in Turkey have taken on a new dimension. 11 of those taken into custody for dancing the halay accompanied by Kurdish songs in Istanbul were sent to prison at lightning speed.


ANF
ISTANBUL
Monday, 29 July 2024,

House raids were carried out in the boroughs of Bağcılar, Esenyurt, Sultangazi and Gaziosmanpaşa in Istanbul on Saturday 27 July.

18 people were taken into custody for dancing the halay accompanied by Kurdish songs at weddings on different dates.

After giving their statements to the prosecutor, 11 of the Kurds who were brought to court were sent to prison on charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization”, while the other 7 were released under judicial control.

Protest in Urfa

In Urfa, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Karaköprü District Organization protested the recent detentions and arrests of people dancing halay with Kurdish songs. The protest was attended by DEM Party Legal Commission co-spokesperson Sevda Çelik Özbingöl, DEM Party Riha Provincial co-chairs Bekir Karakeçili and Sema Aişeoğlu.



Karakeçili said: "Those who applaud the organized show of fascism staged on the streets, at weddings, in the Parliament, on social media and in all areas of life are dragging society into dangerous waters. Sop committing open hate and racism crimes against Kurds."

Halay protest in 7 provinces

Similar statements and protest were held in Pirsûs (Suruç), Xelfêti (Halfeti), Curnê Reş (Hilvan), Serêkaniyê (Ceylanpınar), Wêranşar (Viranşehir), Hewag (Bozova) and Bêrecûk (Birecik). DEM Party members and the public came together in front of the party buildings and danced the halay.

Eleven more people taken into custody for "dancing Kurdish halay"
Eleven people who were dancing the halay to Kurdish songs at weddings held on different dates in Istanbul were detained.The reasons for the detention of the people taken in house raids in Bağcıla...

Six women dancing halay at wedding in taken into custody
Six young women were taken into custody after images taken at a wedding in the Misirc (Kurtalan) district of Siirt (Sêrt) and shared on social media.After the images were published, house raids w...

Data centres are guzzling up too much electricity. Can we make them more efficient?

THE CONVERSATION

Published: July 29, 2024 

Our insatiable demand for digital content and services has been driving a rise in energy-hungry data centres.

The International Energy Agency reports global data centre electricity consumption could double in a few short years, reaching 1,000 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2026. That’s roughly the same as generated by the whole of Japan per year.

Some predictions estimate 8–10% of the planet’s electricity production will be needed to sustain the relentless growth in data centres.

These figures are not uniformly distributed across the globe. In Ireland, where the sector is incentivised, data centres are predicted to exceed 30% of the country’s electricity demand within the next two years. Similar reports predict an increase in Australia from 5% to 8–15% of electricity by 2030.

So why do data centres need so much electricity, and is there anything we can do to make them more energy efficient?

Why so much power?

Browsing the web, catching up on our social media feeds and binge-streaming the latest series are just some of the activities data centres support. In addition to these uses, power is also consumed at scale for artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency.

Includes traditional data centres, dedicated AI data centres, and cryptocurrency consumption. Low and high case scenarios reflect uncertainties in the pace of deployment and efficiency gains amid future technological developments. International Electricity Agency, CC BY

We may imagine data centres as rows of computers (servers) in racks with flashing lights, but, in terms of power usage, this is only part of the story.

When computers work hard, they tend to generate heat – lots of it. This heat is usually bad for the components within the computer or slows it down. With neither option desirable, data centres use extensive cooling systems to keep the systems running at a tolerable temperature.

Of the power consumed by an entire data centre, computers may use around 40%. A similar proportion is typically dedicated to simply keeping the computers cool. This can be highly inefficient and costly.

Where data centres are designed for liquid cooling – for example, by immersing the “hot” equipment in fluid, or cooling air directly – this can result in the waste of considerable volumes of water.

A Google Alphabet data centre near Groningen, The Netherlands. Aerovista Luchtfotografie/Shutterstock

How can we make data centres more energy efficient?

Using more renewable energy can decrease the demand on the electricity grid and the ultimate carbon footprint of a data centre. However, there are also many ways to reduce electricity usage in the first place.

Airflow: older data centres may still operate as a single large room (or multiple rooms) where the entire space is cooled. More modern designs make use of warm and cold zones, only cooling the specific equipment where heat production is a problem.

Energy recovery: rather than forcibly cooling air (or liquids) using electricity, the warm exhaust from data centres can be repurposed. This could replace or supplement water heating or central heating functions for the human-centric parts of the building, or even supply surrounding premises.

Examples have included heating homes and businesses in Finland, a swimming pool in the United Kingdom, and even a trout farm in Norway.

Aquifer cooling: in locations with convenient access to underground water sources, groundwater cooling is a viable option to disperse excess heat. One example can be found in Western Australia with a CSIRO Geothermal Project helping to cool the Pawsey data centre in Perth.

Optimisation: although there are no reliable figures to quantify this type of waste, inefficiently configured software or hardware can use up some of the computing power consumed at a data centre. Optimising these can help reduce power consumption.

Ironically, an increasing number of cooling approaches involve the use of AI or machine learning to monitor the system and produce an optimal solution, requiring additional computing power.

Optimising energy consumption, in general, can improve the costs of energy production. This idea opens a significant field of research on efficiently running all of the hardware in a data centre.

Physical location: by planning where a data centre is located, it is possible to significantly reduce cooling requirements. In northern Europe, the local climate can provide a natural cooling solution.

Similarly, recent trials using underwater data centres have proven not only effective in terms of cooling requirements, but also with the reliability of equipment.

Read more: Most data lives in the cloud. What if it lived under the sea?
The future of data centres

The evolution of AI is currently having the biggest impact on data centre power consumption. Training AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and others is having such an impact, organisations like Google have recently increased their greenhouse gas emissions, despite global efforts to invest in carbon-neutral initiatives.

Even once trained, the use of AI-enabled applications represents significant power usage. One estimate suggests AI searches use ten times the power of a more typical Google search.

Our desire to use AI-driven products (and the enthusiasm for vendors to develop them) shows no sign of slowing down. It is likely the predictions for data centre energy usage in the coming years are in fact conservative.

The lights are not going out just yet, but we are close to a tipping point where the power requirements of the systems we depend on will outstrip the generation capacity.

We must invest in clean energy production and effective energy-recovery solutions at data centres. And for now, perhaps we should consider if we really need ChatGPT to draw a silly picture

Authors

Paul Haskell-Dowland
Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan University

Bogdan Ghita
Associate dean (International), Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Plymouth

KOREA

Top 1% of natural science students enter medical, and pharmaceutical schools

기자명 Kim Ju-yeon
Published 2024.07.29 
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Most of the top-ranked high school students in natural science went to medical and pharmaceutical schools last year, a study showed. With the increase in the medical school enrollment quota from next year, the trend will intensify, according to experts.

A study has found that the top students in the natural sciences are increasingly gravitating toward medical school. (Credit: Getty Images)

On Monday, Jongro Academy, the nation’s largest private educational institute, released the results of last year's scores of students admitted to natural science colleges on the Korean Council for University Education's college entrance examination information portal.

The results showed that all 125 students admitted to universities with scores within the grade-point average (GPA) of 1.06 in last year's entrance exam went on to study medicine and pharmacy. Of the 125 students, 93, or 74.4 percent, went on to medical school, while 25 (20.0 percent) went to pharmacy school, four (3.2 percent) to veterinary school, and three (2.4 percent) to oriental medicine school.

None of the test takers went on to study general natural sciences, including engineering.

Even when the institute expanded the GPA scope to Grade 1, many students went on to study medicine.

Of the 157 students who scored a GPA of 1.07, 153 went on to study medicine and pharmacy, and 121, or 77.1 percent entered medical school. Only four (2.5 percent) went on to study general natural sciences.

Of the 1,246 students who scored within a 1.23 GPA, 1,137, or 91.3 percent, went on to study medicine and pharmacy, including 70.1 percent who entered medical schools.

A similar trend emerged when it expanded the scope to students accepted into universities with a GPA of 1.57 or lower. Of the 3,793 students accepted into natural science colleges last year, 2,670, or 70.4 percent, were admitted into medical and pharmaceutical sciences and 29.6 percent into general natural sciences. Among them, 1,432, or 37.8 percent, entered medical schools.

When the institute expanded the GPA threshold to 1.72, 2,888, or 60.6 percent, of the 4,766 accepted students went into medicine and 1,878 (39.4 percent) went into general studies in the natural sciences. Among them, 1,480 students entered medical schools, accounting for 31.1 percent.

The skewing to medicine was also seen among students at the top of the college scholastic ability test (CSAT).

According to the academy, all 488 students who scored within 98.62 points on average, the top 1.38 percent of the percentile in the language, math, and exploratory sections of the CSAT last year, went on to study medicine. Of these, 427, or 87.5 percent, entered medical schools.

Of the 918 students who scored in the top 2 percent with a mean CSAT percentile score of 98.0, 778, or 84.7 percent, went on to study medicine, while only 140, or 15.3 percent, went on to study general natural sciences. The number of students who entered medical schools was 640, accounting for 69.7 percent.

Lim Sung-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, said there is a skewing toward medical schools among top students, which will intensify as medical school students increase from the 2025 academic year.

“As the recruitment capacity of medical schools expands in 2025, students in the top tier of both the CSAT and GPA will be more likely to apply for medical and pharmaceutical schools instead of selecting general majors,” Lim said.

Lim noted that natural science students with a 1.5 GPA will likely enter medical schools.

“The expansion of medical school enrollment quota may lead to a ‘medical school hyper-concentration phenomenon' and cause a larger drop in the admission scores of general science majors than that of medical majors,” Lim added.

Just Stop Oil protesters block Gatwick departure gates

Seven people entered the South Terminal at around 8am, the activist group said.


Just Stop Oil supporters have blocked departure gates at Gatwick Airport, the group has claimed (Gareth Fuller/PA)

George Lithgow

1 day ago

Just Stop Oil supporters have blocked departure gates at Gatwick Airport, the activist group has claimed.

Seven people entered the South Terminal at around 8am and “used suitcases with lock-on devices to block the departure gates”, Just Stop Oil said in a statement.

An image shared by the group appeared to show the protesters sitting on the floor inside the airport, blocking an entrance.

The protesters could be seen wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, with their hands in orange-coloured boxes.

The action is part of the “Oil Kills international uprising”, the group said, taking place at airports around the world.



Mel Carrington, 63, a mother and former environmental consultant from Dorset, and Greg Sculthorpe, a mathematician from Doncaster, were said to be among the activists involved.

Earlier this month, Gatwick became the latest major airport to secure a High Court injunction in an attempt to stop would-be environmental activists trespassing on its land after receiving police intelligence over protest plans.

Timothy Morshead KC, representing Gatwick at the hearing, said such action could cause “severe disruption and financial loss” and “significant delays for passengers”.

Gatwick Airport and Sussex Police have been contacted for comment.

 

Flying foxes moving west across Australia in search of homes and food

ABC Eyre Peninsula

 / By Jodie Hamilton and Emma Pedler

Posted 2h ago2 hours ago

The colony in Adelaide's Botanic Park is estimated to contain 35,000 bats.(Supplied: Craig Greer)

In short:

Grey-headed flying foxes have been found in camps west of Adelaide for the first time.

A researcher says the animals are heading further west for food and shelter as more habitat is lost across the country.

What's next?

South Australians are being asked to embrace the protected native bats as new residents.

Flying foxes are slowly moving further west across Australia in search of food and shelter due to habitat loss and the effects of climate change in the country's eastern states.

For the first time in southern Australia, grey-headed flying foxes have been found as far west as the Eyre Peninsula.

There are well-established populations living along the country's east coast and camps have also been spotted in Katherine in the Northern Territory and at Port Augusta and Port Pirie in South Australia.

The native bats are listed under the Commonwealth environment legislation as vulnerable species and are protected nationally.

Flying foxes congregate in trees during the day, in locations known as camps.(Supplied: M. Stokes)

No bats to 50,000

Adelaide's Botanic Park is currently home to a large camp of up to 50,000 flying foxes, which ecologist Dr Karl Hillyard said was a relatively recent state of affairs.

"I'm always explaining to my kids ... [that] when I was growing up, they weren't here," he said.

"[It indicates] just how our landscape changes from time to time."

The flying fox population in Adelaide has exploded in recent years, increasing from 1,000 in 2010 to the tens of thousands that live there today.

Dr Hillyard, a principal ecologist for wildlife management at South Australia's Department of Environment and Water, said people needed to learn to live with the bats.

"It is just something new for many South Australians that they haven't grown up with, which probably many of our younger generations are now sort of starting to get used to," Dr Hillyard said.

"They're really, really clever [and] really important for our biodiversity."

Up to 50,000 flying foxes are camped in the Adelaide botanic gardens.(ABC Eyre Peninsula: Amelia Costigan)

Sightings far and wide in South Australia

There have been recent sightings of flying foxes at Streaky Bay, Port Lincoln, Riverton, Barmera and Mambray Creek.

Dr Hillyard said they had even been spotted as far as Woomera in SA's outback and Yalata, near the Western Australian border.

"So [it's] definitely a bit new," he said.

"[There's] a little bit of an expansion of their range going on, which is really interesting."

There have also been reports of small camps of around 100 to 200 grey-headed flying foxes at Port Pirie, Port Augusta and Mount Gambier.

South Australians are being educated about their new bat residents.(ABC Eyre Peninsula: Amelia Costigan)

Moving elsewhere to find food

Dr Hillyard said their migration has not mitigated their vulnerable status across Australia. 

"The grey-headed flying foxes that are being reported on Eyre Peninsula have likely travelled from the Adelaide area ... in search of food," Dr Hillyard said.

"Flying foxes often move about the landscape seeking nectar, flowers and fruits off the many native and introduced plants they feed on."

He said the bats, which are herbivores, helped disperse seeds and pollen.

Flying foxes are most common on Australia's east coast and moved to Adelaide in 2010.(Supplied: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)

Dr Hillyard said the native bats were most common on Australia's east coast.

"They span from through Queensland, New South Wales through Vic, and now up through South Australia," he said.

"Some of the research from tracking studies show that they move following food resources.

"Some camps increase in numbers while others taper off depending on where the food resources are."

Radio tracking also showed that the bats followed established bird migration paths and used features in the landscape such as roads or railway lines as guides.

Dr Hillyard said several threats were impacting the protected species across the entire country.

"Habitat loss, climate change, is putting some stress on those populations," he said.

"That's why we're just really keen to help inform people help people understand how they can live with the bats."

Breeding populations

Existing populations have begun breeding across SA's Limestone Coast.

Dr Hillyard said the bats could also be breeding in the camps at Port Pirie and Port Augusta.

"They breed in March to May and then have pups in that September to November period," he said.

"So, it's entirely possible that breeding has already gone on and there are pregnant females up in those parts of the world."

He warned flying foxes could carry diseases and urged people not to touch or handle them and said to seek medical advice if scratched or bitten by one.