Beanie is an orphan male Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who was found on his mother who had hit powerlines and died from the electric shock.
Beanie was only 10 days old.
He is being raised in care and will go to creche when he's 12 weeks old. He has not developed burns and is a confident and happy young batty.
Powerlines kill a lot of bats, but during baby season it happens more often to the girls, who are heavier and more awkward both towards the end of their pregnancies and when they are carrying around their babies for the first month of the baby's life. They can be slightly unbalanced by the baby's weight.
Often they will rest of powerlines, and when they spread their wings they touch 2 wires and the current short circuits through mum's body.
The babies generally survive, being insulated by mum's fur. Often babies have oral burns or wingtip or foot burns.
When the hand raised babies are 3 months old, they go into a creche, where they join other orphans and form a group. 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.
