ABOUT BAT CONSERVATION AND RESCUE QLD
Bat Conservation and Rescue Qld
is a registered not-for-profit volunteer organization that strives to help people understand the importance
of all bat species, to provide a prompt and humane rescue service, to raise orphans and to rehabilitate injured bats before returning them to the wild.
BCRQ offers this free 24/7 community service all year round including public holidays.
I HAVE FOUND A BAT
SEEK HELP – PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH BATS!
CALL OUR RESCUE HOTLINE ON 0488 228 134
If a bat bites or scratches a human, it may have to be destroyed and sent for testing for Australian Bat Lyssavirus – do not risk the bat’s life or your health. Only people trained and Rabies vaccinated should handle bats.
A flying-fox hanging on overhead power lines may still be alive. Even if dead, it may be a mother with a live baby tucked up under her wing. Please call BCRQ immediately.
If you find a flying-fox caught on a barbed wire fence, please very carefully and without touching it, throw a towel over the bat to help keep it calm. Then call BCRQ immediately.
If you find a flying-fox caught in fruit tree netting, do not try and cut the bat out of the net but call BCRQ immediately.
If the bat is on the ground, please cover the bat with a cardboard box or a washing basket to contain it and call BCRQ immediately.
Any bat by itself through the day is in trouble.
Keep children and pets away from the bat to help minimise its stress and remember, NO TOUCH NO RISK!
HOW YOU CAN HELP
BECOME A MEMBER
Join as an active or associate member. BCRQ offers free training to members.
MAKE A DONATION
Donate via GoGive, Bank Transfer or PayPal.
All donations of $2.00 and over are tax deductible.
This beautiful big black flying fox is Foxtel. He was hopelessly caught on an aerial and was spotted by a resident across the road and called in. Thank you!![]()
Luckily access for a fire truck was good and the local Fire and Rescue Service Queensland Fire Department were happy to help. Thank you too!![]()
Poor Foxtel was terrified by the noise of the cherry picker approaching him and struggled, entangling himself worse than he previously was. It was a very challenging job to untangle him but one of our most experienced rescuers was up to the task. ❤![]()
How often do you check your TV antenna? It’s rare, but flying foxes are caught on them from time to time. Please consider making a habit of checking yours every morning.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
One day. Three rescues. Three different locations. Three 8-week-old-ish black flying foxes. Two boys and a girl so…meet Harry, Ron and Hermione. 🦇🦇🦇![]()
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We suspect they were separated from their mothers during Tropical Cyclone Alfred and have been high in trees alone until, some days later, thin and hungry, they’ve come down lower where they were spotted by caring people who called to get them help. ❤ All of them are considerably underweight but otherwise uninjured.![]()
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We’ll feed these cute kids up and release them when they’re ready for their second chance.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.![]()
Lee is a very lucky boy to have been spotted at night trapped in a vacant construction site. Why was he trapped? The fencing was made of metal. Flying foxes are good climbers but need to be able to dig their claws into what they’re climbing, as they do with trees. Metal is too hard so poor Lee could only crawl around looking for a way out. He looks pretty sad in the photo of where he was found, so we’re thrilled that RSPCA QLD found nothing more than grazes on his finger joints. As soon as those grazes have healed, we’ll release him back to the wild where he belongs.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
Amon and Amir are two young black flying fox boys who were out foraging in different locations on one of the windy nights during Tropical Cyclone Alfred when they were buffeted into something and ended up hanging down low not feeling great. Luckily both were spotted and called in. Amon is around 3 months old and Amir, 4 months. Both are recovering well, enjoying their fruit buffet each evening. It won’t be long before they’re ready to head back to the wild.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
Serenity is just two-and-a-half months old. She should be starting to forage independently by night, while still suckling from her mum by day. Something must have happened to separate her from her mum and she was bravely trying to survive on her own. Imagine the surprise of one of our carers to find this small, thin, girl on the outside of her aviary one morning! It’s just two kilometres from Serenity’s camp. Was it a coincidence? Or did she smell the fruit and bats inside? Whichever, she picked a great place to stop and rest from exhaustion and hunger.![]()
Once our carer warmed and hydrated her, this weak little girl sparked up and made her displeasure known! This is how she got her name. 😆![]()
Serenity has settled into care and is now living up to her name. We’ll feed her up to a healthy weight then get her back into the wild.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
This sweet boy is Darcy. He’s around 4 months old, just starting out in life, and was found on the ground at the airport one night. A kind person hung him in a tree but he was still there next morning so they rang to get him help. Thank you!![]()
He was quite woozy at first so we think he accidentally flew into something. He also had a broken toe, which has been splinted and is healing well. It didn’t stop him really enjoying his first taste of banana smoothie!![]()
We are humbled to name Darcy after a young boy who is 5 years old. Human Darcy was really upset about bats being hurt so his mum suggested he donate to a charity. This beautiful-hearted boy donated $5 which we imagine is a lot for one his age. Thank you Darcy! With caring people like you, we’re assured the future welfare of our beloved bats is in good hands.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
We had another mass microbat rescue earlier this week!![]()
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The residents of this house saw a few microbats around their front door one day and the next there were many, many more!![]()
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At first we thought they’d come from a tree that was being cut up after being blown over during Tropical Cyclone Alfred, however these microbats were Miniopterus australis - little bent-winged or little long-fingered bats, which are a cave dwelling, not tree dwelling species. We looked around and discovered a culvert across the road which had a lot of water running through it, so it’s likely they were roosting in there and were forced out as the water level rose from flooding from, you guessed it: TC Alfred.![]()
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Butcher birds were picking these little bats off from where they were huddled and kookaburras were taking them as they attempted to go back to their roost. ![]()
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Also, the residents were unable to open that door of their house, and the back door also had microbats sheltering around it.![]()
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So, in a mammoth operation, we rescued 118 of these bats, assessed them, and returned 108 that were uninjured later that day, as the water level had gone down enough for the culvert to be safe for them.![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
Your social media volunteers have no power (one of us) and no internet (the other one) due to cyclone Alfred. So for today’s post, we’ve dug into the archives for a memorable rescue from some years back that our more recent friends won’t have seen.![]()
This bat was spotted by a lovely person on a cross-river ferry in the river at the base of a vertical wall. He was too far down to rescue from above. As luck would have it, a police inflatable motored past. It was our rescuer’s only chance to get the bat so, why not try? She waved them down and they very kindly diverted to help. It’s not something that happens every day!![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
Meet Windy.![]()
He was our last rescue before we locked down as Tropical Cyclone Alfred was arriving at the islands off our coastline. It was a very windy night and he was likely buffeted into something by a strong gust of wind. He was found by a caring person crawling around on the ground in their yard.![]()
Windy looks like a grey-headed flying fox at first glance, but he’s a black flying fox with unusual markings. Those streaks on his face remind us of the wind map we were monitoring at the time – another reason for his name. ![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.
This little red flying-fox, named Bob, somehow found his way into a local hardware store. After a quick circuit of the undercover landscape supplies section, he settled high above an aisle where he spent the day admiring the merchandise.![]()
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Just before closing time, a team of our local volunteers gathered to make the tricky rescue attempt. Capturing a mobile flying-fox in a large area full of obstacles was a challenge! The risk was that Bob could easily dodge the rescue poles and venture beyond reach elsewhere in the building. There was also a barbed wire fence directly outside the only possible exit point that Bob could get caught on. ![]()
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The BCRQ team stationed themselves in various locations to guide Bob towards the exit. The rescue attempt succeeded, after some clever wrangling by our pole experts! Fortunately, Bob had no injuries at all from his adventure. Before release back to the wild, Bob was taken into short-term care for observation - which gave him the opportunity to work on his own rather messy DIY cage redecoration project. We are very grateful to everyone involved in Bob’s shopping expedition. Thank you!![]()
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If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THE BAT and give us a call immediately on 0488 228 134 for Brisbane and surrounds, or your local wildlife rescue in other regions.