A visit from a local Flying Fox

I was awoken at 2am the other day to a crazy amount of noise coming from our back yard. Somehow a Flying fox / Fruit bat had crashed into the fence in our back yard. The impact noise woke our dogs as they were sleeping in the laundry and they quickly went out to investigate what might have disturbed their domain. The resulting growling and barking of the dogs and the squealing from the bat woke the whole house and we went out to investigate. After finding the lone bat bailed up against the fence, we quickly pulled the dogs back and locked them inside while my wife called Wildlife Information, Rescue, and Education Service (WIRES)> to find out what we should do.

I checked to see if it was still alive; I could see that it was breathing and it made a few attepts to climb the colourbond fence. It struggled to find anything to grip onto though so it remained belly down on the ground, still dazed and frightened from the encounter with the fence and then our dogs. I put on my leather gardening gloves, retrieved a box and a blanket to wrap it in but just as I was leaning over to pick it up my wife yelled through the house "Don't touch it!". While the risk of contracting a virus is very small, any bite or scratch from these native bats could carry a pretty nasty bug so better to be safe rather than sorry. WIRES advised that they would send someone to pick it up as soon as possible. Without any definitive timeframe for a rescue, I put the blanket over the top of the poor creature to keep him warm and proceeded to board up the area so that the dogs couldn't get anywhere near. We stayed close to the phone and kept an ear out to make sure the dogs didn't manage to get through the temporary barriers. There was not a lot of sleep for the rest of the night but thankfully the construction held (the dogs did give it a good crack) and the bat survived through to morning.

During the night the cute little critter decided to crawl from under the blanket to the gate. It seemed this was the only place it could find a way to hang itself upside down (see pic). Not really sure what drove it into the fence, our neighbour used to have a tree that was a firm favourite for bats but they removed it a few months ago. Not sure whether something like an owl attacked it but I'm happy that it survived the encounter and hope it has a speedy recovery. Many thanks to the kind WIRES volunteer that arrived to pick up the frightened little creature. I doubt we will receive any updates but I'm sure it will be ok.