Help Baby Bats Take Flight!

Hello Fellow Bat Lovers. We are coming to the end of the pup season, which is exciting, however we have had a surge in the number of adults and juveniles coming into care.

Firstly an update on our pups. We have put our first group of pups into the release cage , which is located in the bush near a Grey Headed Flying Fox camp. After a week of acclimatising to the new environment we opened the hatch 2 nights ago, so our young ones could leave and experience free living! Once they have dispersed and integrated into the colony, we will put our next lot of 30 pups in to get ready for release. It is with a great deal of satisfaction to be able to report on this, as many of the pups will have been in care for over 3 months, so to have a sucessful outcome of release is exciting.

The news for the adults is not so cheerful. We have had a long, hot and dry summer that has meant the food supply for adults is low. Due to these weather conditions, the gums that are flowering are not producing much nectar, and the bats are looking for an alternate food supply - fruit trees in peoples back yards. The favourite seems to be fig trees as the figs are ripe and juicy. Unfortunately many people have the incorrect netting over their trees, consequently we are rescuing many adults from entanglement. These net caught bats need to be in care for a minimum of 2 weeks, and many are in for much longer due to the injuries they sustain from being caught up in the nets. Educating the public and retail stores (that sell netting) about wildlife friendly netting is a long and slow process. Any netting that you can poke your finger through is dangersous for any wildlife, not only bats.

I want to personally thank you all for your continued support for our Flying Foxes.Without it we could not contiune to rescue, rehabilitate and relase these amazing animals.

THANKS!

Fiona