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 Bank Transfer or PayPal.
All donations of $2.00 and over are tax deductible.
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Meet Peekaboo, who peeped out from under the towel to see what her rescuer was up to. She had been spotted by a child hanging at the back of a sports facility’s car park. Peekaboo isn’t the only nosey one in the aviary – she received the usual sniff test from the welcoming committee who check out all newcomers on arrival!
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Sometimes flying foxes sleep very deeply.
This is Ingrid, a pregnant black flying fox who you’ve met before. She was bumped by a car and is still recuperating from some soft tissue injuries.
She’s enjoying the warmth of the sun and has fallen fast asleep in this deeply relaxed position!
Isn’t she adorable?
Flying-fox toes automatically lock on to branches using no effort or energy. To move, a flying fox must consciously uncurl their toes. This is how they can sleep without the risk of falling.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Kylie is a juvenile black flying fox, one of last season’s babies, and she is as cute as they come. ❤
Like Brownie, Kylie became confused by reflections in glass on a balcony of an inner suburb and ended up hanging under an air-conditioning unit on this balcony. She’s doing well and we expect that, like Brownie, she’ll only need to be in care a short while.
If you have glass sliding doors or windows or a glass pool fence, please consider attaching decals to make the glass more visible to wildlife.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
When we rescue a bat kindly called in after it was found on the ground or hanging low, it can be a challenge to find out why it was there. They don’t have dashcams we can check! This lovely boy, Bakker, is one such bat. But, on examination of his wings, we saw the telltale signs of a raptor attack. Some birds of prey include flying foxes in their diet – this is part of the natural ecosystem. The bird approaches a bat in flight from above and grabs it by the talons on its feet. It looks like Bakker’s predator missed his body and Bakker was able to escape. He has three holes in his wing membrane on his left wing that are spaced just like talons. On his right wing, there is a row of small holes suggesting one claw scraped down that wing. Lucky escape, Bakker!
Membrane holes like this heal beautifully, so these holes aren’t an issue at all for Bakker.
Bakker is named in appreciation of one of our lovely donors. Thank you!
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Nade is a charming grey-headed flying fox who is, sadly, our first paralysis syndrome victim of the season. In good news, he’s responding well to our care and he’s one of the lucky ones that we’ll be able to nurse back to health and release back to the wild.
Can you see Nade’s drippy eyes in the photos? This is a classic indication of paralysis syndrome. It’s due to his reduced ability to blink. Part of his care includes keeping his eyes nice and lubricated.
Paralysis syndrome has been detected in both flying foxes and lorikeets, two species known for their love of nectar. Flying fox and lorikeet paralysis syndrome is under investigation by a collaborative team of scientists, veterinarians, and dedicated wildlife carers. While a dietary toxin is suspected, the initial findings haven't revealed clear causes yet.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Brownie was foraging in the city area – maybe the City Botanic Gardens – when he mistook the reflections in a sliding glass door of an apartment in a high rise building for open sky and flew into it. He ended up on the balcony, much to the surprise of the lovely residents who rang to get him help.
They named him Brownie because of his magnificent ruff. He’s a Grey-headed Flying- fox. They have a much more prominent ruff than Black Flying-foxes, as you can see in the photo of his back.
He is showing no signs of any injuries from his ordeal and will only be in care a short while before we release him back to the wild.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Flying foxes babies are born completely helpless. They cling constantly to their mother’s body for the first month or so of their lives, including when she flies out to forage each night. Why don’t they fall off? First image and sticker design, Doug Gimesy Doug Gimesy Photography
They have two adaptions to help them hang on – baby teeth and baby claws. Just like humans, baby flying foxes have baby teeth. They are recurved (or curved backwards) which helps them clamp onto mum’s nipple with a very tight grip.
Their toe and thumb claws have a little extra claw that sticks to their mum’s fur like velcro.
A baby tucks its wings and legs in tightly and clings on with the help of these two adaptations, enabling mum to safely fly high in the sky with her baby.
The baby teeth and claws fall out at around the time a mother starts to leave her baby behind in the camp when she goes out to forage. Adult teeth come in and the regular toe and thumb claws are used for hanging, climbing and so on.
Normie’s baby teeth were a little late falling out. You can see them here in the red circles, along with his adult teeth. They fell out eventually.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Ingrid was found near a road so we think she was bumped by a car. Our volunteer rescuer took her to the RSPCA wildlife hospital where she was checked over and xrayed. In great news, she has no broken bones and the xray also confirmed what we expect of most adult females at the moment – that she is carrying a precious new life.
Ingrid was very bruised and sore around her neck and shoulder area and appreciated several days of rest with full-service smoothie and papaw. A week later she’s feeling well enough to hang with the other rehabbing bats to continue her recovery.
Ingrid is named in appreciation of one of our generous donors. Thank you, Ingrid! ❤
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Winston is a delightful orphaned black flying fox that we raised two years ago. Tragically, his mother was electrocuted on powerlines. You can make out three ears in the photo taken at his rescue. The extra ear, on the right of the mother’s body, is one of Winston’s ears.
Winston’s story is a reminder that, coming into birthing season, it’s important to call in any bat you see on powerlines so we can check if it’s a mother with a live baby. This can occur at any time of year with out-of-season babies but is especially important in spring and summer.
Winston is now flying free spreading seeds and pollinating trees that many other wildlife species rely on for their survival. With your help, we hope we can save more lives like Winston.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.
Danielle is a sweet black flying fox who was very lucky to be seen on a road by the very caring human Danielle. Thank you!
We don’t know what happened to her but it happened four or five days before being spotted. She was skin and bone and we’re sure she hadn’t been able to feed herself during that time.
With TLC she’s slowly regaining weight and her strength. We expect she’ll need a good month or more in care before she’ll be in top condition and ready to go back to the wild.
Here she is meeting the other bats in the flight aviary and, later, on her own.
If you see a bat on its own in the daytime, it needs help. 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.