Thread: Wombats anyone?
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Old 05-16-2014, 03:00 PM
Lara Lara is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,984
15 yr Member
Lara Lara is offline
Legendary
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,984
15 yr Member
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Oh yes...

That is Sky, Abinger, Bell, Elsa and Hercules. lol

They're flying foxes (or fruit bats).
Lots of people here dislike them, but I grew up in the North and they were just part of my life.
These days they carry a potentially deadly Lyssavirus so should not be handled by untrained people.

They're also implicated in the spread of another virus called Hendra.
Hendra is a weird one. It's not transmitted from the flying fox directly to humans
but appears to infect horses that have been in contact with droppings
or saliva and then the infected horses can potentially infect their human carers.

Unfortunately the extreme change in climate here has had some tragic results in recent times to all wildlife.


.

Killer climate: tens of thousands of flying foxes dead in a day
February 25, 2014

Anyway, sorry about the long tangent, but when I was looking at the Victoria Wildlife site yesterday regarding the wombat orphans,
I recalled I'd saved that really cute photo from last year.

A friend of mine years ago was a carer and she looked after a baby flying fox called Edward Scissorhands
until he was old enough to be sent back to the roost.
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"Thanks for this!" says:
mrsD (05-16-2014)