As U.S. freezes and UK lies under flood water, intense heat wave in Australia cooks 100,000 bats

• Southern Queensland is being gripped by furnace-like temperatures
• At least 25 separate colonies have been reported to be wiped out
• RSPCA says heatwave was a significant hit to the population of bats

By CHRIS MURPHY

PUBLISHED: 20:05 GMT, 8 January 2014 | UPDATED: 10:37 GMT, 9 January 2014

As most of the U.S. freezes and the UK drowns in floods, a blistering heat wave in Australia is so bad 100,000 cooked bats have fallen out of the sky, dead.

Southern Queensland is being gripped by furnace-like temperatures, said the local RSPCA.

This has in turn caused mass deaths with at least 25 separate colonies wiped out since the weekend, including at Mt Ommaney, Redbank, Boonah, Palmwoods, Laidley and Gatton.

RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty says the heatwave was a significant hit to the population of bats across the state, reports the ABC news station.

'The heatwave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in south-east Queensland,' he said.

'That's obviously going to have a pretty disturbing impact on those colonies and those colonies are vital to our ecosystem.'

The smell of bat carcasses has caused problems for locals.

The Scenic Rim Regional Council, west of Brisbane, has organised rubbish collectors to clear up the carcasses of about 2,000 bats.

Residents near Boonah's Athol Terrace lookout say they have been putting up with the stench of the dead animals for four days.

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536073/As-U-S-freezes-UK-l...