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.
Flying-foxes are by nature very clean animals. Even from a young age, they attempt to groom themselves using their tongue, thumb and claws. Black flying-fox orphan Pikelet is a little uncoordinated, but she has already worked out that her claws make an excellent comb!![]()
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Pikelet has a lot of growing and learning to do in the coming months. Eventually she will join many other orphans that our members are hand-raising this season in our pre-release facility. The final stage for the orphans is flight practice and dehumanization prior to joining a nearby wild colony. ![]()
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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.![]()
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🦇The bats featured on our social media are in temporary care due to being injured or orphaned. When their rehabilitation is complete, they are released back to the wild where they belong. Bats are not pets.
These past few weeks, across Brisbane and up the Queensland coast as far as Gladstone, our organisation has had record-breaking call volumes for flying-foxes in need of help. Emhyr is just one of the many powerline rescues that BCRQ volunteers have attended to this season. ![]()
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During the months of October to February we ask that people in Queensland please call in deceased flying-foxes that they see on powerlines, as there is a chance of a live pup clinging to their deceased mother. Another lesser-known reason why we ask people to call, is because secondary electrocutions can occur when curious bats investigate the first victim. ![]()
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We suspect this is what happened in little Emhyr’s case. Those with a keen eye might notice that there are two adult flying-foxes on the powerlines in this clip - Emhyr's mother who is quite decayed, and tragically, a freshly deceased pregnant mother beside her. As there was no food source near to these lines, we think the second mother might've heard Emhyr's cries and had landed on the lines to investigate. ![]()
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Thank you to the kind person who reported little Emhyr, and to the Gladstone Ergon team for attending to rescue him! We cannot thank the electricity utilities (Ergon Energy Network, Energex and Powerlink) enough for their invaluable support to retrieve these future pollinators.![]()
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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.![]()
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The bats featured on our social media are in temporary care due to being injured or orphaned. When their rehabilitation is complete, they are released back to the wild where they belong. Bats are not pets.
Did you know that flying-foxes can twitch their ears separately? They do this to pinpoint the origin of sounds in their vicinity. Unlike the much smaller insectivorous microbats, flying-foxes do not use echolocation to navigate or find food. ![]()
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This demonstration of ear waggling is brought to you by four week old Elmo, a Black Flying-fox orphan rescued from powerlines. He had a few minor burns, which have healed nicely. Elmo is just one of over 100 orphans that our members are rearing this very busy season, with more arriving each 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.
Jaimie isn’t so sure about Halloween. She thinks it sounds a bit scary!![]()
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Jaimie was named after a member of the lovely family who saw her clinging to the trunk of a tree near a busy waterside park. We do not know how she became separated from her mother. Aged 7 weeks, Jaimie is now old enough to have her first taste of solid food. Soft steamed apple will be her treat for Halloween!![]()
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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.
A caring person spotted the body of a flying fox on the ground and noticed a baby moving around on it. She protected them from birds with a box. Thank you!![]()
It’s likely Rockit’s mum was electrocuted on power lines above. She fell in a way that caused a greenstick fracture to Rockit’s leg. Thanks to the wildlife vet team at RSPCA QLD for assessment, treatment and a dashing splint and bandage. Two week old Rockit is well on the way to healing. He is being hand-raised for release back to the wild. Bats are not pets. All our bats are destined for release when ready.![]()
Please call in any bats you see on powerlines in case there’s an alive baby clinging to the body.![]()
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Any bat by itself through the day is in trouble. 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. No touch, no risk.
Exactly one week ago today, tiny newborn Wiggle was spotted moving on the ground in a suburban backyard. Wiggle’s placenta was fresh and still attached, but his mother was nowhere to be seen. He weighed 70 gms (2.5ozs), which is a healthy normal birth weight for black flying-foxes. Our main concern for Wiggle was that he was very cold and at risk of developing pneumonia. However, one week later he is doing very well. The observant lady who discovered him gave Wiggle his cute name. He lives up to it by constantly wiggling out of his warm wraps!![]()
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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 gorgeous black flying fox is Thames. She was found by a caring man in his yard. Thames was a little thin and had a small open wound on her belly. She was surviving just ok in the wild. When things got too much for her, she could not have been in a better place. Her finder is a wildlife guardian, regularly rescuing birds, snakes, possums and anything else that needs help. ![]()
Thames’ wound healed over and she was fit for release. We hope you enjoy this video of her soaring up into a camp, back in the wild where she belongs.![]()
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Any bat by itself through the day is in trouble. 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. No touch, no risk.
They’re totally cool little dudes 🦇!![]()
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Did you know that many microbat species are mighty mosquito and moth munchers? ![]()
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Microbats can eat 40% of their own bodyweight (around 500 insects per hour). 🍕This is equivalent to a person eating 20 pizzas in one night! 💵Their nightly feasting activities are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars to the agricultural sector annually! This includes a value of over $60 million to the Australian cotton sector, just for their munching of the ‘Cotton Bollworm’ moth alone.![]()
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Like we said – totally cool. With wild gigs every night 😎!![]()
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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 received an early morning call for a bat on barbed wire. Dimitry, a young black flying fox, was only caught by the fur on his belly. However, he was bruised and sore so we suspect he’d had some other incident, maybe bumped by a slow-moving car. Bats know they’re not safe down low, so Dimitry crawled across the ground and climbed the first thing he came to, which was a chain wire fence. He kept climbing and unfortunately became snagged on a barb at the top. ![]()
Dimitry is recovering well and found banana very much to his liking.![]()
Happy birthday to human Dimitry, who he is named after. ![]()
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Any bat by itself through the day is in trouble. 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. No touch, no risk.