AbstractAlthough energy flows are fundamental to our understanding of the functioning of ecosystems, the extent of transport of energy and nutrients by biological agents into mountains is poorly understood. Bogong moths constitute a keystone species in the ecology of the alpine zone of mainland Australia. Although known to transport nutrients and energy essential to the functioning of the alpine ecosystem, this has never been quantified. By allocating mortality between predation, and non‐predator‐related causes, a model was constructed to calculate mortality of moths in the Snowy Mountains region of the Australian Alps. Density of predators, their food requirements and the proportion of predator diet that was moth were estimated, and energy and nutrient content of moths were measured. This allowed a first order estimate of the total mortality of moths above 1500 m in the Snowy Mountains annually (1015 million) and the annual contributions of energy (4929 GJ) and nutrients (7.2 t of nitrogen and 0.97 t of phosphorus) by these moths to the system. The deleterious effects of transportation of exogenous chemicals to the mountains have been explored elsewhere but the fertilizing effect of this transport of nutrients still requires attention.