Rescuing a flying-fox in an empty swimming pool; this is Rubicon
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- Rubicon is an adult female Grey-Headed Flying-Fox who ended up in an empty in-ground swimming pool in a suburban backyard. She was just spreadeagled on the bottom of the pool, not all that happy about anything in her life but at the end of her tether.
And she was lugging around a little jockey under her wing; little Gwickle was climbing to mumbat, also not particularly happy about how life was treating her.
She was one of the easier rescues I've done. All I had to do was to waltz up, climb into the pool and pick her up; she'd run out of adrenaline and wasn't prepared to fight me; all her oomph was gone.
Rubi had no milk in her nipples, so Gwickle was restless and unsatisfied; when I was sorting out Rubi's needs, I knew I was going to have to take Gwickle off her, and was prepared for a bit of commotion and feist, but she didn't even seem to notice that I'd taken her, which indicates a seriously smacked head. Oddly she was quite bright eyed, but passive. All in all, she was (and continues to be) a bit of a puzzle.
Baby Gwickle, on the other hand, is a sweet and active little one who feeds beautifully and likes a butt rub and some petting. SHe's around 10 days old and is doing really well in care.
Rubi's name comes "crossing the Rubicon" means to reach a point of no return; she couldn't cross the swimming pool and ended up somewhere from which she couldn't find her way out.
Gwickle's name came from a viewer but wasn't suggested by a viewer. One of the viewers told me she calls the little baby chirps, gwickles. I liked the word so I just ran with it. Thanks Debbie F for the word which immediately pinged into my naming ideas brain file.
Tolga Bat Hospital takes donations for our batties. Tolga is an awesome place in Far North Queensland, which has charity status. By sending donations to them, they get a percentage (and deserve every cent) and they can allocate money to me for batty expenses without it becoming part of my income stream (which makes tax time difficult).
tolgabathospit...
Mention Megabattie or Meg in the PayPal message box and the money will find its way to me.
If no message box appears, please email Jenny to tell her that the money is for me.
IMPORTANT: If you pay through the PayPal Giving Fund, can you please email Jenny with the AMOUNT DONATED and the name under which you have donated, OR just forward along the PP receipt.
The Giving Fund doesn’t charge any fees (so the bats get more money) but PP doesn’t itemise out the amount, they just send a total every month, and we don’t know if the money is for Tolga or for Megabattie.
Here’s Jenny’s email.
jenny@tolgabathospital.org
Beautiful video. Bless you, Meg.
It must be nice to have a rescue that didn't involve ladders, nets, tree trimmers, etc.😂😂
Meg really did deserve an easier rescue situation!😳💕
She does enjoy a good challenge as well though…but I’m certain an easy one doesn’t disappoint after a string of complicated ones lol. She likes a situation she hasn’t encountered before…and this pair are so sweet. I just hope the Mum hasn’t hurt her head too badly to recover.🖤🇨🇦
"It's baby season." So much in that small sentence.
Gwickle is a fun word and an adorable batty baby.
Yes to both, indeed.
Oh, Rubi. That Suspiciously Colored Splatter by her head makes me worry for her, but I'd be lying if her noble endeavor to escape the looming giant didn't make me giggle. I'll always love the little batrittos (batty burritos? Maybe Bats-in-a-Blanket) just gazing up at you like "I don't know what's going on, I accept that you caught me, I am prepared to analyze the situation and react. Later. In a bit. Probably."
I don't give Rubi a good chance of survival, she's just "wrong" in a way I can't define. She's a puzzle.
Thank you, Meg. Good thing the pool was empty!
Hope they both do well. Baby G is an adorable little octopus. “Milk!” She says ❤️💕🇨🇦🦇
She's doing well
This makes me beyond happy. Older mommy with 3 day old sweet baby and Meg doing her awesome work!! ❤❤❤
Not 3 days old, about 10 days. I said she's over 3 days old because her umbilical cord has healed; the cord stump drops off on day 3.
They have such sweet innocent eyes. 🥹
Just precious, and so proud she was found, and helped. Thank you. ❤
Thank you, wonderful person, for caring about living beings
I fell in love with bats just over 17 years ago; it was the best thing to happen to me
She's such a sweet, precious mommy with her beautiful baby. Thank you so much for helping these beautiful creatures. You are God's blessings to these amazing bats.
What a wonderful video. Bless you.
🥰
Lil Gwickle with her grabby feet, boxing thumbs, a word or three to the host and a chompy attitude towards bottles is ridiculously cute.
God bless you Meg ❤❤❤
Bats are just so adorable
These guys are. The ones where I live have some of the ugliest faces you can imagine and look like monster faced thicc mice with wings. Tiny pinprick eyes, huge ears, squished muzzles, sharp little teeth. But they are still very ecologically important creatures. Even if they arent as aesthetically pleasing.
Hi cascadia; according to the microbat carers, once you get to know them they have enchanting little personalities and faces that become more attractive the more you know them.
@Megabattie
I love watching the myotises in my friends bat roost go in and out (the species is endangered so my friend built a roost out of an old barn on his property for them)
I know why i dont like the way microbats look though. As a young child nearly 40 years ago I encountered an actively rabid bat flopping around on a pathway to a dock. I knew not to get near it, and yelled for my dad. He put it out of its agony and called wildlife to report it. Kind of left an impression on my young self.
I love them and am really into bat conservation and think bats are such cool amazing creatures.
We call my friend's resident colony the "goblin mice" affectionately.
But as an vet (whos fully imovaxxed due to the fact that I do feral feline TNR and wildlife rehab) Im thinking of doing more than volunteer to do population counts for microbats but actually do rehab work for them.
Because of this channel.
The white nose fungus is decimating bats here. Even species that until very recently had huge populations are being hit hard. I want to help.
Oh Meg....the new baby is so adorable! Hoping her mom recovers and both get to be released when ready!😇❤️🖤🦇🖤❤️
Little baby girl is a good communicator! Your soft voice and gentle touch communicates back that she and her Mum are safe and loved.❤
Best wishes for momma Rubi. You've made it this far old girl, hang in there, relax, and let your wings heal so you can raise your baby! Love to see little Gwickles being an octopus.
Such a sweet little girl and her mom. Hope they both thrive with you. It’s time for some good news.
What a beautiful package rescue. Hopefully Mum Rubi is just a bit woozy and dehydrated and able to resume care of her precious hitch hiker after some rest and rehydration. Looking forward to updates on them.
Hope for the best for mommy and baby.
Hi Meg an babies sending love Ann❤️❤️❤️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
She looks like she is torn between deciding to try to tear you to pieces to save her baby or not disturbing her baby
I think she's too vague to know what's going on
As I watched this my best friend texted me. I tried to describe to her how special this video is in the aftermath of recent bats not surviving. I can't say how happy it makes me. Even if we lose them after a while, this is so comforting.
Baby is a survivor but not sure how mum will go; I don't think you should get your hopes up with her.
@@Megabattie I told my friend about this video. I explained how you warn us if we might not want to watch. I turn the sound off and let it play. She thought that was so kind of you to warn us. I know you are scoffing at her calling you kind. 🥴
@@keldaogg2157 Haha, I'm not kind, I just do it out of self preservation; I don't want people to stop watching my videos.
I started doing it when comments from various people said they couldn't watch; it never occurred to me that people wouldn't watch if the outcome wasn't happy. For me, it's about the process; I like rescuing and I like sorting them out; I don't think a rescue has to survive to be a successful rescue, so it was a surprise to me that people won't watch if the outcome isn't happy.
So I started to give people options and choices.
If giving someone isn't kind, at least it was considerate. You do your best for each 🦇 that you rescue. I hope that things turn out well for Mum and Baby girl.@@Megabattie
Glad to see Gwickle is an octopus, that augers well, hope Rubicon wasn't injured badly and can get back with her adorable baby.
Realistically I don't think Rubi is a survivor; she's quite "wrong" in a way I can't define, but which will no doubt progress and become more obvious.
Thank goodness the pool was empty!!! I hope they both recover well. She's got such a cute face.❤❤❤
Poor overwhelmed mom, and baby along for the ride. This has the makings for an interesting story, hopefully, maybe? Hope for pleasant outcomes.💕💫🦇💐
Great video thanks for sharing.
Meg, you used the name Gwickle! Thank you.They are Flying Foxes and my last name is Fox.🦇🦊Terrible she fell in the pool but maybe partly good because mama has 0 milk.
It was me that mention Gwickle in your last video. You put a huge 😁 on my face. It was adoreable how mama kept poking her head out to see everything you were doing.So thank you for naming the babe Gwickles! What a beautiful mama & baby.She tried with all her might to be protective. You are always so kind and gentle with the bats no matter how confused and upset they get.💕😊Have a great week!
Yes I couldn't remember your name; I thought you were one of my Debbies.
I immediately put Gwickle into my brain names file and voila, I rescued a little one and Gwickle seemed to suit her. Thanks for the idea. If you'd made it a suggestion I wouldn't have used it because I don't take suggestions, but it just suited and was ripe for the picking.
I remember that comment.
It's such a pleasure to see how loving and patient you are with them and how well they respond to you. Thank you so much for doing this important work for them😇
WOO HOO!! ITS BABY SEASON !🤰🏼🤱🏼👼🏼
Oh sweet rescue!! What a blessing. Thank goodness you got them Meg. ❤❤❤❤❤
I hope Rubicon recovers. She was acting like she was at the end of her rope, rolling her eyes at you and without much energy left for struggle. The baby just seemed pleased to get some milk, even if there wasn't a familiar bat nipple and the milk didn't taste like mom's. Mammals must have powerful instincts to look after their totally self centered offspring!
I always think it's funny (funny peculiar) how the babies have no sense of boundaries and will stick their claws in the most delicate of places and plant themselves over mumbat's face and mum tolerates it.
Meg would not have been a very good bat mum.
I am so glad mom and baby are safe and well. The toothless mama eyes are in surprise-what's-going-on mode. The baby is precious and has a great appetite. Both are beautiful and your gentle voice helps calm the bats. 🦇
I hope you are able to save Rubicon and her baby! ❤❤❤
The baby, probably; Rubi - not sure.
So cuuuute 🥰
Thank you for all you do for them, love from Italy 🦇🙏💙
My dear friend Meg, I was thrilled when you said momma batty had a baby! I just love babies.
It's the time of the year you find mums with babies on them, and she just looked like it; something about her position I think or the way she moved gave it away, then I could see the extra foot ever now and then and the lump under the wing.
I hope all goes well with Rubicon and Gwickle. They are both adorable. 🦇🦇🥰🥰
Thank you for helping and caring. 🦇💗
Glad that baby Gwickle is doing well; keeping my fingers crossed that Miss Rubi improves, gets her milk supply back, and is able to resume her mumbat duties for her little one! 🤞
❤❤❤❤🦇🦇🦇🦇 good luck mumma and bubba!!!
I've been watching your videos for a while, and you had a lot of deaths in the past few weeks. Let's hope that this family recovers well enough to read
the words "Yay, a survivor!"
Yes, lots of deaths but it's always like this in the beginning of the season.
I think as the season progresses there will be many more survivors, but there's a lot of food around so the bats care coming into care well fed and not skinny, which weirdly means the ones who do have an accident seem to have worse accidents and are more compromised.
If they're well fed they have fewer accidents, but the accidents can be a lot worse.
If they're skinny and starving they have silly little accidents which often aren't all that bad in terms of mum and baby survival.
During food shortage seasons, there are lots of pups coming into care with or without their mums but in seasons where they're well fed, the accidents and pups coming in are fewer but the accidents where mum is hurt are often worse and have worse outcomes for the mums which affects the status of the baby and the baby's chance of survival.
Great job Meg❤❤❤
Its always such a roller coaster. I don't know how you are able to keep it together with some of the recent batties that didn't survive. You are amazing.
Because in bat rescue, a percentage of them won't survive and if I couldn't cope with that I wouldn't still be doing it after 17 years. I can only say that I don't expect them all to survive, and rejoice in the ones who do survive.
I had a run of 65 consecutive death outcomes (one way or another - euthanasia or died in care or dead on arrival) a few years ago; it was becoming tough to deal with.
I’m so glad you got to them in time. Watching the hungry baby discover the warm milk on the other side of the huge (compared to mum’s) pink nipple was very moving. She didn’t hesitate. As for the mother, now she can rest, rest, and heal in warmth and safety if she can.
The teat isn't actually huge because it squashes flat and is actually about the size of mum's nipple when it's flattened.
Love from England ❤❤
Fingers crossed. 💙
Hope mumbat will somehow make it. But the baby is all wiggly and really cute.
I hope the best for poor Rubicon, she's been through the wringer.
Baby seems fairly ok, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for both, just in case.
❤️🦇❤️🦇❤️🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Baby doing fine; I wouldn't get too hopeful about Rubicon; there's something going on with her that I don't understand and I don't think it's good.
Excellent!
Here's hoping for success Meg. ❤🇨🇦🦇🍁
I hope u and baby are doing well, I need a happy ending!! ❤❤
Meg, may do well, and we get to see them released!
I don't think Mumbat is at all well, and unless they're fine in a few days it will be too late to release them together before baby is too big to be carried around in flight.
Rubicon is a pretty old girl, and definitely ready to play peekaboo With You. I love her face, she was wanting to see what you were doing…but not prepared to fight. Her time in the pool must have taken a lot out of her. The little one was full of beans, wanting to see everything you were doing, until the milk became the centre of her world. They look so angelic when they are drinking. She is quite the wiggle butt, are you sure she only has two legs and two arms? I hope both pull through this well, and Mumbat Rubi can take over feeding again once she regains her strength and unrattles her brain. So precious to see. How cold is it there?🥰🖤🇨🇦
Hi Tamarra, you're back! Long time no talk. Hope things are going better.
@@Megabattie Too long, I fell into a dark hole, and it took me a long time to climb back out. Things are going more smoothly now, I still hit some rough patches, but I don’t get lost in them like I did. I miss him horribly, but I am adjusting gradually.🖤🇨🇦
I love how people are thinking bats are scary I mean yeah the disease and rabies and ect. But the eyes and the faces they give you is just adorable
Like most wild animals, if you don't handle them you can't catch anything.
All bat rescuer/carers are vaccinated for rabies.
They have the most adorable faces and big eyes.
@@Megabattie just keep saving those bats 😊
Maybe Rubicon's milk dried up from stress? Hope Gwickle continues to do well, shes adorable! 💜
they often lose their milk from the stress of the accident. It's usually only a matter of support feeding the baby for a few days until the supply comes back.
Once the mumbat is feeling better and able to hang, her baby is reintroduced to her and mum can do all the cleaning grooming and nurturing and baby can suck on mum's nipple all the time, but with support feeds while baby is on mumbat, the milk comes back in again slowly until the support feeds are no longer necessary.
@@Megabattie support feeds then back to mom. Great! 💜
She is precious!🌺
❤
Mumbat Rubicon(Rubi)♥️🩶🦇was fighting for her life and her precious bubba Gwickle but was rescued by wonderful Meg!!💕💕 Thank you so very much, I will keep positive prayers for their survival.🥺💓
I woudoln't get too invested in Rubi because her issues are significant, but baby Gwickle is doing just fine.
Both so sweet.
But how comes that she was in this empty Pool? Glad that she was found in time.
I don't know why she was in the backyard but she flew into the pool and couldn't get out.
Gwickle seems to have gotten the suck & swallow down pretty quickly with a few chomps on the bottle dummy here and there as she drank! Such a tiny one. I heard her squeak when you were helping her feet grab onto the small stuffed animal! Hopefully Rubicon will pull through... ❤
She's about 10 days old, and has been on her mum and worked out the sucking thing right from the start, and since nothing is wrong with baby, she feeds well and has no problems transitioning to a bottle.
Spuddle was very compromised and premature and had internal injuries so he just couldn't get his suck/swallow coordinated and didn't have the strength and oomph to learn.
❤❤
Baby batties are like baby people. Grabby little stinkers. Here's hoping for the best.
Espero que mamá Rubi y su cría se recuperen. Me hace gracia la pequeña Gwickle (mis disculpas si escribo mal los nombres) intentando escaparse. Yo creo que la pequeña es muy lista y enseguida aprenderá a beber del biberón.
Gwickle está bien y bebe bien.
poor mum bat seems so exhausted, I hope she perks up after some rest
I think it's unlikely she's a survivor; she isn't right.
I don't know how she ended up in the backyard; the MOPs called and said they had a bat in their backyard then called again to say she was in the pool. The yard had high fences, m so she had to have flown into the yard. If she was hit by a car (unlikely since it was a quiet dead end street), she couldn't have flown over the fence.
Her condition and dehydration was suggestive of her being unwell for a couple of days, as was baby's desperation for food.
I looked her over for raptor punctures in case she had been grabbed by a raptor and dropped.
As always, their survival depends on what happened before I get there, and whether or not there is a chance of survival; sometimes the damage done before I arrive means the bat has no chance of survival no matter what I do, however I don't have a crystal ball so it has to play out until I can see what is going on, one way or another.
Meg what sort of milk do they have x
There are various proprietary flying-fox milk replacers available commercially.
Cow and goat milk can be used with extra calcium and glucose.
Some human baby formulae can be used - with extra calcium. Flying-fox babies grow really quickly and need more calcium than human babies.
How come that she has no milk?😯
Whatever happened to bring Rubi into that backyard is unknown; why was she flying low enough to end in teh backyard. Was she grabbed and dropped by a raptor (bird of prey)? Did she get hit by a car (unlikely because the fences of the house were really high). Is she sick? Does she have an infection? Has she been in the backyard in a tree for a few days, getting sicker?
Whatever happened to her before she ended up in the backyard affects how she was when I rescued her, but she was quite dehydrated and baby was desperately hungry, so maybe whatever happened had been going on for a few days.
Quite often the mums lose their milk from the stress of having an accident, and need to be cared for for a bit and baby returned to her when she's able to hang, and baby support fed until mum's got enough milk.
Heh, that one really wants a good look at you, or the video glasses. Man, she's staring daggers.😆
How do the mothers react when the baby taken is away? I mean cats and dogs look for their children, go berserk for them, opossums on the other hand couldn't care less.
You saw me taking the baby from her and she didn't even really notice (which gives credence to a head smack injury of some seriousness). Usually they go completely berserk and fight you tooth and nail.
A seriously injured bat won't particularly care.
@@Megabattie Yeah, seemed weird to me she cared so little since I have seen bats come back for their young. Having seen the next video she seems pretty dazed.
❤🦇🙏
OK where is your sidekick Maggie? She should be standing there with the baby bottle that baby hasn’t had a chance to pee on her and you know how she brings out the pee in a baby bat. It is also so astounding how much fluid you can put into a bat
Give her a chance; I've just brought her home.
@@Megabattie Sorry, I always thought that you had Maggie on standby all the time.
@@snellsnell7490 Maggie is away a lot but she comes over during the day if I'm busy or if she wants to, like if I've got a baby in care.
I hope this isn't A season of rare survivors. We need them so much!
I think as the season progresses there will be many more survivors, but there's a lot of food around so the bats care coming into care well fed and not skinny, which weirdly means the ones who do have an accident seem to have worse accidents and are more compromised.
If they're well fed they have fewer accidents, but the accidents can be a lot worse.
If they're skinny and starving they have silly little accidents which often aren't all that bad in terms of mum and baby survival.
During food shortage seasons, there are lots of pups coming into care with or without their mums but in seasons or where they're well fed, the accidents and pups coming in are fewer but the accidents where mum is hurt are often worse and have worse outcomes for the mums which affects the status of the baby.
Baby poo means at least she has had colostrum from mum.
She didn't have milk in her poos before I started feeding her, so she hasn't had milk for a while.
However since she was 10 days old, she got colostrum from her mum for the first critical day. I use Impact or GOS in their milk at this time of the year (these are colostrum replacers).
I thought it looked like a pool of blood by the Moms head at first
When I was rescuing her it didn't look like it, so either I was focussed on teh batty and not the bottom of the pool, or it just appeared red in the video; I don't know. She didn't have any bleeding on her head but she did have some bleeding from her nether regions.
Why not return it to the mum?
Because Mum is in trouble and doesn't even care that I've taken the baby (they usually fight you if you try to take their baby).
And when Mum is lying down and unable to care for her baby, baby pees all over her and mum gets all slimy and gooey in her wing pits and if she can't groom it off she gets fungal infections.
The baby gets returned when mum is fit to hang and able to care for the baby and then the support feeding happens while the baby is on the mum.
Baby at this stage just wants some loving and feeding and isn't distressed at being off mum (when they're older they know they should be on their mums and are more distressed.
@@Megabattie thanks
@@Megabattieso much to know and understand - can’t beat years of experience.