Sequoia is about 9.5 weeks old now. She's a Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who was found on her dead electrocuted mother on the ground under powerlines 7 weeks ago.
She's starting to be more interactive, more nocturnal and starting to wean.
When wrapped, she often has her thumbs crossed above her head - I think it's so cute.
She'll be going to minicreche in a few days - and I'll drive Guinness up north to his minicreche so he can be creched with other blacks.
Our babies are growing up and on the path to leaving home and taking their next steps towards freedom.
When the hand raised babies are 3 months old, they go into a creche, where they join other orphans and form a group. At this stage they'd be separating from this batty mums and be becoming more independent in the colony. In creche, at this age, they learn batty etiquette and how to live in a batty society. They shrug off their human mums and want to be with the other batties. When they are emotionally and physically ready, and uninjured, and around 4-5 months old, they’re put into a release cage under a colony and they can integrate into the colony and fly out with the wild bats. If they can’t find enough food, they can always come back to the cage for a feed. Support feeding is put up on the outside of the cage for as long as they are coming back and eating it. When the colony flies out for winter, they have fully integrated and fly out with them.
