plum eater in residence

[David Hare-Scott]

I went to fix the net round my plum tree which has lots of nearly ripe plums. This is who I found waiting inside the net:

This is one of the macrobats, they feed on fruit, nectar and blossom and they don't do echo location. They hunt at night by sight (and smell), hence the smallish ears and big eyes. Bats are one of the few groups of placental mammals that are native to Oz.

The apparent cuteness belies a very sharp set of teeth and a willingness to use them. He/she objected violently to being expelled, that stare is using excellent binocular vision to line up on me so that the second I get in range I can be accurately bitten.

Once I get them out of the net (leather gauntlets obligatory) they have to be thrown up in the air as they are unable to take off from the ground.

[George Shirley]

How do they taste when roasted?

[alien from planet x]

Shirley you jest.

[songbird]

George Shirley wrote: ...

crunchy frog?

songbird

[David Hare-Scott]

There isn't much meat on them, all skin and hinges. And they are protected.

[Fran Farmer]

Wow. Beautiful beastie but I'd always be wondering if they carry the Hendra Virus and give each and every one of them a very wide berth.

[David Hare-Scott]

For those who don't know, hendra virus is a nasty disease with a high mortality rate that infects horses (and sometimes people) in Oz. There is some evidence that it may be carried by bats but the matter is not conclusive. How it might get from bats to horses we don't know. The only humans who have got it apparently got it from horses and whether you can get it from bats directly is also not known but it seems possible. The areas where outbreaks have happened are a long way from me, although that is not entirely comforting as bats do migrate to a degree following blooming and fruiting up and down the coast. My horses are all fine!

I take careful precautions but if outbreaks move close I wouldn't handle them at all as there is no vaccine for people. Which means the only way to free them would be destructive, as in a faceful of spade and corpse removal at a distance, which I really don't want to do if there is a reasonable alternative.

[Nelly W]

Looks like a dog in a Halloween costume. And probably similarly ready to attack if for different reason.

[David Hare-Scott]

If your dog hangs upside down and has eyes like that I would move out and not leave a forwarding address :-)

You are not the first person to see some resemblance, that are often called flying foxes locally. This one is either a grey-headed FF or a red FF, I am not expert enough to tell which. The problem is that both have grey heads and a red ruff!

[~misfit~]

I clicked the forward button a few times and saw some of your other pics.

Those Galahs - they mate for life you say? Man that must be tiring! A short but happy life. ;)

[David Hare-Scott]

Most (all?) of the many parrots of Oz do. If you watch lorikeets, rosellas and many others that move in flocks you will see most of the flock actually move in pairs. The pair will separate briefly but keep coming back together. One of the pair will never leave without the other. This is rather like humans in that monogamy is standard but not always observed in practice, in the breeding season there is always some nooky on the side.