Quatti is an orphan Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who has come in from a Heat Stress Event where her mother died.
Quatti is 7 weeks old.

The flying-foxes are horribly affected by high temperatures (over 43°C) and Australia, apart from mostly being on fire in Grey-Headed Flying-Fox territory has also been subject to drought. The mums use the last of their strength fanning their babies (which requires energy and generates heat in the mum's body) and giving baby the last of her own body fluids by feeding baby her milk.
As the temperature increases the mums die and the babies fall to the ground or hang low, where they may be rescued.
Quatti was lucky to be rescued. She was part of a mass drop of over 250 babies found alive over a few days in the Shoalhaven (with thousands dead).
Greys are Federally listed as Vulnerable to Extinction. Their habitat and food trees and corridors are burning and the drought has prevented a lot of flowering. It's going to be a grim time for the flying-foxes in the next few months.
She is in care with me for a few weeks till she grows up enough to be returned for mini-creching prior to creche proper.

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.

Her name means bent, curled, silent, mute, aloof. She was quite subdued in care till she regained her mojo a day or so ago. Now she's just one of the kids and is a snugglebunny when she's not busy being a stickybeak.

свернуть