Black Flying Fox

William is a male baby Black Flying Fox, Pteropus alecto, which is a member of the only group of flying mammals on the planet. He, like his cousins, are nectar and fruit eaters. He has large eyes, simple ears and a relatively long snout, with a head very similar in appearance to a dog. Living in camps sometimes made up of 10,000 to 100,000 of animals, these communities have a complex social structure. They are very intelligent, unsurprising though when you consider the view of Dr Jack Pettigrew, of the University of Queensland, who stunned the world in the 1980's when he made the controversial hypothesis that flying foxes share a common ancestry with primates. This conclusion was drawn from the similarity of many characteristics of the brain and the pattern of the optical nerve pathway. These similarities placed them near the lemur branch of the primate tree. The controversy aside, there is no doubt they are intelligent animals and have plenty of personality.

What about William though. He was found on the ground at a private residence in November at Cleveland, which is near Moreton Bay, Queensland and not far from one of South East Queensland's largest Flying Fox colonies, the Black Swamp. He weighed only 88 grams, with a 7.8 cm forearm (measured from the elbow to the finger tip). Flying foxes have arms, elbows and fingers, they are just covered by a layer of skin. Wildlife carer Dee Smith was called in; as a carer of Flying Foxes she was initially hoping to reunite the young William with his mother. Flying foxes give birth to live young in October and though William was well developed, he was still incapable of flight, and probably arrived where he was found by clinging to his mother, as the babies are transported about for at least a month after birth. With many Flying Foxes flying above, Dee placed William into the top of a small tree, hoping for the mother to come back. While one adult did fly down close to him, it left without him. Dee waited for about two hours, then realised she would have to step in and take care of the little bat.

Feeding was a high priority and commenced immediately. His diet consisted of baby milk powder and feed times were initially every two hours and then every three hours. As you can see, caring for wildlife is a big and tiring job; William had to reach 170 grams before receiving solids, such as fruit.

Flying foxes require huge quantities of food to fly and stay warm. To minimise weight carried around during flight they must and can digest food in 12 minutes, not bad but makes for quite a mess. But I guess, if you had to fly sometimes 50km a day to find your food, then the lighter the load the better.

By early January, William, weighing 260 grams, made his first flight, though confined to the bedroom, which made for many interesting times. After 12 weeks William, now weighing 357 grams, was transferred to the aviary with four other bats; this was the creche.

William settled in well, this communal arrangement is important as these animals are very social and territorial, and these skills must be learnt if William was going to survive back in the wild.

By late February, William had a forearm length of 13.5 cm and by 14 weeks after pickup was ready for release with others in the creche. While Dee considered William a delightful baby to raise he must go back to the wild, which he did, and with the right skills learnt to survive in the wild.

The importance of getting William back into the wild cannot be under estimated. It is now known that Flying Foxes are one of the major pollinators of Eucalypt trees and disperse the seeds of many rainforest species, making them critical to the health and regeneration of our forests.