I am quite possibly going to be getting Flying Foxes in the near future, If anyone has any information on them it would be greatly appreciated, I really need Minimum sizes of Cages and Where they can be found everywhere i have looked has no information. Thanking EVERYONE in advance
flying foxes are fantastic animals ben. probably the easiest way to acquire them would be register as someone who will care for injured wildlife - then get the word around that you are the "bat guy" and people will hand them into you when they are found. get in contact with local wildlife rehabilitators in your area and ask them about it. healesville sanctuary will no doubt help you with cage design etc. i think you will find that it can be quite a simple series of structures. not unlike long thin flight aviary for birds. as you are from adelaide however i think you will be quite restricted on the sort of flying fox species you will expect to find in your area (though you would probably know more about that than me by looking out your bedroom window at night!) my books only list the grey-headed and little red flying foxes as vagrants to south australia. good luck! otherwise if you ask me really nicely, i'll set up a mist net on my roof and catch you some grey-headed flying foxes. the eucalypts on the roundabout is full of them!!!
Thanks pat for that, I will probably have an aviary 4m X 2mX 2m high, i am going to have it conventional with netting put under the wire/sheeting of the roof, for them to cling too, I hardly ever see big bats down here, but i can get some little Bent WIngs from a tree in a park near me! but i woul really rather teh Foxes they are just so much more beautiful, So Mist Net Away, Please! lol EDIT: As for your wildife carer idea, good idea, except with all the south australian societies, it woudl take me at least 4 years to get them, they go in an order, Like Birds then Possums then Gliders then Wallabies, etc...... Then Bats. Or i could just start up my own association!
so then if wildlife rehab is out - how do plan on keeping these animals? do you have a native animal licence that includes flying foxes and do you plan on sourcing animals from zoos? if you are planning on keeping a large species like the grey-headed - just have a cyclone fencing cage built. the thick wire will prove perfect for hanging off and the wire is thick enough to not damage their feet. i would avoid netting - you might find that they get caught in it.
OK, thanks again pat, all your info is much appreciated, well i can get a permit for them, very easily, but its the sourcing taht would be the hardest i know Gorge Wildife Park have alot i wonder if they have any surplus? Will e-mail them now, thanks pat
As I am not from Aussie , this is a stab in the dark .... but do many injured native animals get taken to vets ? Could you let some vets that are in Flying fox regions know that you may be able to accept some once they have recovered ? Forgive me if this is obviously not possible in Australia . I have visited many times , but havent lived there .
ha ha - nigel, no australian would say "i am not from aussie"!! you can say i am an aussie but you can't come from there. its like saying "i'm not from kiwi" but one of my kiwi mates says the same thing now that i think about it!!! i have seen an old documentary with mike willesee (who was himself a flying fox lover and rehabilitator) about people who cared fro ophaned flying foxes. i'm sure there are some contacts around but like i said the real problem may be that flying foxes, let alone injured ones, are not really common around adelaide (unless you say they are ben?) and therfore may be faced with the not so easy task of convincing a zoo to breed/sell/donate some to him... but then again ben sounds like he has a few contacts - so the best of luck!! they certainly are really cool creatures ben - but i hope your prepared for the smell!!! anyhow i'm setting up my mist nets tonight on my roof. but if i do catch you one (and don't contract rabies and die) - i'll be asking for one of those adelaide alligators in return!!
Sure would you like me to throw in a couple of Salties aswell, or you could have one of my handraised budgies, lol. Yeah i have a few contacts, so i will let you all know how this pans out. But yeah pat, i will probably never see flying foxes where i live, i live on the outskirts of teh suburbs, then theres the outer suburbs, unfortunaly out skies are filled with haze from the Industrial area. yeah i have e-mail gorge and am awaiting a reply, a prerequisite or getting the permit is thet i know where i can get them, so that why tahts soo importatnt, and after that i have a property inspection, better get building. As for the smell, will it be combatted if i presure clean the aviary regularly, or is it just there, and i know this is a stupid questin, but how strong is it?
dude, put it this way - like all forms of life, bats are blessed with the need to produce bodily waste. however bats spend most of the day hanging upside down. laws of gravity - they piss and **** all over themselves!! its a pretty powerful odor. the colony at the melbourne botanic gardens managed to stink out the entire fern gully. but just a couple should not pose too much of a problem. unless you plan on finding little red flying foxes - remember, the grey headed flying fox has one of the largest wingspans of the bat world.... their big!!!
theres a good size colony at heallesville - but again ben i don't think that a zoo is going to give away any of its surplus animals to a private individual with no prior experience with the species - i think your going to have to do this the hard way and start thinking about becoming a injured wildlife carer with the idea that you might eventually, get fruitbats......
yeah me too, i will probably just get a couple of sugar gliders and 2 Brush tailed bettongs, i have friends i can get them from,
