Flying Fox Pups in need of your Help and Support

Welcome to our GoFundMe. We are Townsville Bat Carers, a vaccinated and permitted group of experienced wildlife carers specialising in flying Foxes and Microbats within the Townsville (North Queensland) region. We have just over a month until approximately 100 Flying Foxes pups are scheduled to be moved into the soft release cage in Townsville, we are faced with having to fund approximately $10,000 to adequately feed and care for these pups over the next 4+ months. This equates to approximately $100+ per pup. Flying Foxes are critical in ensuring the survival of our great Australian Eucalypt forests and the overall health of our ecosystem. They are keystone pollinators of the Australian bush, pollinating flowers of over 50 native trees. The pollen sticks to their fur while they’re feeding on the nectar of flowers, and then as they fly off, they are able to pollinate many trees over long distances. Flying-foxes create new forests by dispersing seeds from the fruit they eat. They are vegetarians that forage on the fruit of over 50 native rainforest trees and vines. Their excellent vision and keen sense of smell helps them navigate their way over vast landscapes. Each flying-fox can spread up to 60,000 seeds across a 50 kilometre stretch of land in one night. They are currently struggling immensely in this ongoing drought, compounded by the thousands of hectares of burning forests and extreme levels of local hate and discrimination. This dire straights environmental situation has been compounded by the Townsville City Council smoking the colony in Townsville, including around the crèche tree, in which the mothers leave their babies while foraging for food at night. Due to the smoking that has occurred during breeding and birthing season mother Flying Foxes are unable to land to pick up their pups, leading to over 75+ becoming abandoned at the crèche tree and needing to come into care, as well as the normal rescues coming in from the NQ Wildlife 24/7 rescue phone. Many many more pups sadly have died, starving while too high up for us to reach. Without time to prepare we need to raise funds of $10,000 as soon as possible. All funds raised will be used to purchase Wombaroo Flying Fox Protein Powder, Flying Fox suitable milk formula powder and last but not least fruit! So much fruit. Where possible we will endeavour to source fruit at low or no cost, however we need to be especially mindful to provide fruit that has a good sugar to fibre ratio ensuring we are providing a balanced, nutritional diet for these soon to be independent Flying Fox. Apples and pears form 2/3 of these pups fruit intake while in care, and are not grown locally in the tropics, leading us to purchase at higher prices than you may find down south. We appreciate any and all donations we receive, even $2 is remarkable! Any questions, queries, suggestions please ask away, we’d be happy to answer. For future soft releases in coming years we will be able to adequately fundraise to support these pups, however this year we were caught off guard and are really feeling the pump with only 3 weeks to go until the first round of pups is scheduled to get their first taste of the big wide world! Please also follow our new page on Facebook Townsville Bat Carers - for updates and pics of our batlets in care :)