Megabattie

Flying-Fox rescue daily life: this is Mimi

This video isn't for sensitive viewers. For some reason I forgot to put up a warning screen before the post mortem footage of her injuries after the disclaimer screen at the end. Not all rescues end well despite their initial presentation. I was called to a fairly local rescue where the MOP said the bat was hanging off her aircon unit in the backyard, and that there had a huge commotion during the night and she had to bring the dog and cat inside. It was only in the morning that she found the batty hanging off the aircon unit. The batty is a juvenile Grey-Headed Flying-Fox. Initially I thought this was just a standard courtyard rescue; inner city terrace houses are on long narrow blocks where they adjoin with common walls and long narrow corridors between the main part of the house and the backyard. Batties can't stand up and the flying-foxes have real trouble flying off the ground; in a narrow passageway or a courtyard backyard, they have no way of taking off, or of getting enough space to spread their wings and manoeuvre. I live in the inner city, and these houses are standard (but slowly being replaced buy ugly apartment blocks). At rescue, I wrapped her; she was upset (as you would be) and bitey and screamy, and the end of her one wing was in tatters, indicating she'd caught it on something, or she had been grabbed by the dog. Dog attacks are usually blunt crush injuries or rip injuries, whereas cat attacks are punctures/bites, often into a body cavity. But batties fight back, so they usually make enough noise and bite and bigwings, so the predator will (hopefully) backoff. I got her home, and when I looked at her, I had missed out on her major injury; on the wing I didn't look at, she was missing 3 fingers; she had her thumb and her 5th finger, but she'd lost her second third and fourth fingers are wrist level, having had them crunched off by the dog. There are no words for this. I've put up the post mortem footage after the disclaimer screen. RIP little Mimi. Mimis (or Mimih spirits) are fairy-like ancestral beings in the folklore of Indigenous Australians from Arnhem Land and Northern Territory Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for our batties. Tolga is an awesome place in Far North Queensland, which has charity status. By sending donations to them, they get a percentage (and deserve every cent) and they can allocate money to me for batty expenses without it becoming part of my income stream (which makes tax time difficult). https://tolgabathospital.org/donate/ Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to me. If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for me. IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt. The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie. Here’s Jenny’s email. [email protected]