Late October — Mid November, pollinators

Grey-headed flying fox pup season has commenced with a flurry. Please meet our newest pups, Zadie, Zelda, Otto, and Sage, plus a few recent rescues and a reunite.

Little Zadie was found clinging to the wheel of a wheelie bin in a residential back garden in Altona. It is likely she fell from the safety of her mum on a particularly windy night. At the time of rescue, on the 27th of October, her measurements told us she was just twenty-five days old; her countenance, that she was a real bright spark. She ‘arrived’ on the same day as our order of a copy of Zadie Smith’s new book, The Fraud, so for the time we’ll know her, we are calling her Zadie, for the twinkle in the name and its meaning, (an) ‘abundance’ (of good flower and nectar).

As the first pup into care for the season, Zadie (below) enjoyed having her daily between-feed bottle of water, as we committed to visual memory the flowering times and leaf-line differences between Eucalyptus viminalis and radiata, for future wildlife browse collecting.

While we cannot show her the stars at night, like her mum would have done those past twenty-five days, we’ll look after her until she is ready to go to crèche with all the other pups rescued this season.

On the 5th of November, early in the morning, our neighbour, Chris, while out walking with her dogs, heard the unmistakable sound of a Grey-headed flying fox pup calling for their mum. She raced over to find a tiny pup hanging low on a small branch of a tree in the children’s park. Luckily for the pup, they’d fallen the ‘right’ side of the fence, where no dogs could reach them, though several were keen and circling, and one was starting to dig near the fence. Our neighbour stood guard until we arrived. And so, Zadie soon had a Zelda (after Zelda Save Me the Waltz Fitzgerald) to write a story with.

At dusk, we returned with Zelda to the place she was found, with our neighbour, a ladder, a pole, a basket, and hope, to see if we could reunite mum and pup. After three hours of almost, nearly, almost, we retrieved a tired Zelda from the tree and assured the mum who was circling low that we’d take very good care of her pup until her pup was ready for crèche and soft release.

The mum and pup touched faces many times during our attempted reunite, but for some unknown reason Zelda didn’t climb onto her mum. At the beginning, Zelda called to her mum a couple of times, and her mum, who had been waiting in the large elm tree near to where Zelda had initially fallen, landed in the tree as Louise was putting Zelda in position (before lowering the ladder and moving much further away), but to no avail (magnified and circled in yellow). Over and over, her mum would land in the same tree as Zelda, climb down to her, sniff her, but Zelda stayed put. Her mum would then fly off, circle the park, call out to her pup, and land again (at least ten times), but Zelda didn’t budge. We tried a second tree, as well, but the same pattern occurred.

Zelda (below) slept soundly her first days in care, and the two of them instantly rub along well together.

Zelda was swiftly followed by little Otto, on the 9th of November. Otto, a 22-day-old Grey-headed flying fox pup, was thankfully spotted by a kind person who stayed alongside him to keep him calm and protected until we were able to get there. She made similar noises to converse with and calm a horse, and in the photo she took of him, hanging low in the foliage on a hot day, you could see it worked. The things they must have said to each other!

Otto (below) was dehydrated when he came into care, with sunken eyes, but he perked up overnight and, like Zadie and Zelda, is feeding well.

And so Zadie and Zelda now have an Otto in their life, and they form a tiny, almost zoo of a ‘zzo’.

From a pup in a bush, three quickly became four, later that very day, with the rescue of ‘Kitchen Tong’ Sage (below).

Between the rescue of a pup found on the ground in Docklands, who sadly died before rescue, and a second and third pup found in the Edinburgh Gardens, like Zelda, came Sage, so named for wisdom and the fact that the person who initially found her under a tree used a pair of kitchen tongs to pick her up and take her to their home.

Since cleaning the muck from her form, she’s settled in well. She’d also swallowed some mystery matter that has since passed, and her call is no longer hoarse. She’s out of the woods, for now, like the trio; wings, as ever, crossed.

Please keep an eye and ear out for lone pups in need of help especially at this time of year.

Recently, just before nightfall, we scooped up an eleven-day-old pup (below), who was heard calling loudly for their mum by someone as they were passing by the train station. She was on the ground near Westgarth Station, soaked and cold, and with bits of tanbark in her beautiful wings. She was underweight for her age, and she would have been there the whole day, distressed and calling. For such a public area, it is amazing she wasn’t heard or seen earlier, and, luckily for her, that she wasn’t harmed.

After stabilising her through the night, she went into care with another Bat Rescue Bayside foster carer who had two pups near to the same age as her.

Other pups are not so lucky, like the little pup, who sadly fell from his mum and was found on the ground, bleeding, with obvious injuries, and calling out in distress, by a kind woman who lived nearby. As with the person who’d found Otto did before her, she stood and kept watch over the little pup until we arrived, ensuring that he was safe. We scooped him up in a mama roll, making sure to keep him stable, and rushed him to the vets at Melbourne Zoo. He was a sweet 127g pup, with multiple open wounds and a compound fracture, consistent with a dog attack. The severity of his injuries meant he needed to be euthanised.

Some rescues, however, have wonderful wild ends.

Early in the morning, on the 15th of November, a little Grey-headed flying fox pup was found hanging low on our local tennis court fencing being swooped on and harassed by nesting Noisy miners. The little pup’s mum, in the elm trees nearby, was doing everything she could to keep her pup safe, and she swooped at the birds, as she kept calling out to her pup, and he kept calling back to her. The wonderful folk at the Fitzroy Tennis Club kept the courts nearest to the mum empty to help keep her as calm as possible.

After scooping up the exhausted pup, we took him home to rehydrate him and check him over, with the intention of bringing him back to reunite him with his mum when the park was less busy with dog walkers. But again the miners kept swooping at the mum every time she tried to leave the safety of the dense canopy of the elms and pick up her pup (magnified and circled in yellow).

With the help of our kind neighbours to the left and right of us, we returned a second time, at dusk, with her pup, and popped them in the same small tree near to the tennis courts, in the off-lead dog area. The same pattern continued, the miners kept chasing off the mum, who’d waited in the same spot all day.

As we collectively waited for the miners to go to bed, and the Yarra Bend colony could be seen flying overhead, the mum did a circle around the park and another closer to his tree, then landed. Both of them made so much noise and sounded delighted to be together again. They stayed in the tree together for a few minutes, very quietly, then she took off, pup on board, did a tiny loop, and flew back low over our heads as if to say ‘I’ve got him; thanks for your help’.

A huge heartfelt thank-you to fellow Wildlife Vic volunteer, Gwenn, Tim, and Chris, for helping reunite this mum and pup. Thank-you to the Fitzroy Tennis Club for calling for help so quickly and for your care shown to this pair of forest pollinators.

Zadie, Zelda, Otto, and Sage continue to thrive, and will no doubt soon be joined by a few more pups.

Pup season has commenced!

Image credit: Sage with some flowering gum.