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Melinda Brennan, Bat Conservation and Rescue Queensland's president, coordinated the four groups. She said: "We're learning that if we can coordinate together, we can best utilise our resources for the best outcome for our volunteers and the bats."
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"Our bat orphans arrived very late at night," Ms. Brennan said about the 42 pups taken to Brisbane. "We triaged them, coordinated with the different groups and then distributed them amongst our carers — they are doing great."
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To the Stonedeaf Wildlife sanctuary in Townsville went thirty pups. "Between the four groups, all the orphans were hand-raised and bottle-fed with special requirements to mimic their natural diet," Ms. Brennan added.
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To get ready for their release, the bats had to go to a special flight school. That's right, the bat flying school is "a specially built aviary on the outskirts of Brisbane where they could practise their flying skills while carers mimicked flying." After that training period, when they reach a certain weight and size, the bats will be ready for a "soft release" back into the wild. At Batavia, the bats are going through their soft release, their cages having been opened so that they can join the local colony, although they are still receiving supplement food.
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"They are released at the same time as their wild counterparts, so their first flights and first adventures are at the same time," Ms. Brennan explained. "It is amazing how they just absorb into the wild and the local colony that's been a release site for many years... The local colony bats sometimes actually come in and get the little ones to show they were to go."
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On the opposite side of the state, Tara Hoffman from Stonedeaf Wildlife is currently releasing her bats. "On the long drive home, we had to stop several times to give them all fluids," Ms. Hoffman said. "There were some at the beginning where we had to do intensive care. They were in our little hospital and we had to make sure they were given sub-cutaneous fluids just to keep them hydrated and they had to be slowly introduced to milk."
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Every single one of the pups survived. "Nine of them have gone to the Whitsundays to be released," Ms. Hoffman explained. "Their cage door will be opened [this] week, and the next will be in the coming weeks and they will be released either in Townsville or Brisbane."
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We wish all of these adorable pups an easy time assimilating, and we hope they enjoy their new lives. For more stories about animals finally being released into the wild, click here.
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