Rescue centre gets cute orphaned baby bats out of a flap

Rex

Gorgeous little baby bats orphaned at birth are being looked after at the Wildlife Victoria rescue centre in Melbourne.

The grey-headed flying fox nursery is set up each year to care for the orphaned winged creatures. And while night-time feeds drive most mums batty, Wildlife Victoria volunteers are busy refilling formula bottles and rotating dummies around the clock.

The babies are often rescued after their mums have been electrocuted on power lines, fatally entangled in dark-coloured fruit tree netting or ripped apart on barbed wire.

Its latest arrivals, Sky, Abinger, Bell, Elsa and Hercules, are swaddled in blankets to help them feel secure and put in a bat nursery where they will thrive in the company of their little flying fox cousins.

"Coming from colonies we have found they do much better in company than on their own,'' WV development manager Amy Amato explained.

Grey-headed flying fox bats are indigenous to Australia, and are the country's largest species of bat with an average wingspan of over one metre.

Wildlife Victoria is a volunteer-based organisation that provides a 24-hour rescue service for local animals, and is also called upon to assist in emergencies like oil spills and bush fires.


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