Australia 2015

Many people don't like bats, are afraid of them. But bats are wonderful creatures that are highly social and surprisingly cute once you get to see them up close.


A massive mural of Australian flora and fauna offers a lovely representation of fruit bats.

Fruit bats - aka Megabats or Flying Foxes - are very different than the microbats I'm familiar with in California. First of all, they're generally a lot larger, with wing spans from 3 to 5 feet. Unlike microbats, flying foxes wrap their wings around their bodies when they roost upsidedown. Also, they don't hide in dark, shadowed nooks and crannies. They roost by the hundreds in trees alongside riverbanks during the daytime, readily visible.

Flying Foxes get caught on barbed wire fences, are subject to a variety of parasitic diseases, and cannot tolerate heat waves. This bat hospital takes care of injured or sick bats, releasing them back to the wild when they recover.

A staffer from the Tolga Bat Hospital talks about her charges.