Shoalhaven Bat Clinic - Wildlife Rescue SC Inc.

24/05/2025

Our microbats are such incredible little miracles

Until now, little was known about foraging flights of critically endangered southern bent-wing bats, which roost in caves

11/05/2025

Happy Mothers Day to all our mums big and small, but we hold a special spot for all our batty mums and human foster bat mums raising our keystone species, pollinators and pest insect terminators 🦇🤎🌷

13/04/2025

I'm sorry, I had to do this 😝😅
Thanks bats for all your do for our planet!

12/04/2025

The last of this seasons flying foxes will tomorrow be on their way to release.
Through hours of hard work, we've raised, rehabilitated, and released over 50 flying foxes and nearly 30 microbats in 2025 so far.
Our volunteers will still work with a small number that are still in treatment over winter, but we can now catch a breath and be proud of the work we've done.

10/04/2025

Little Olaf, a Black Flying Fox about 4 months old, has had an absolutely wild ride last night after being collected by a truck somewhere between Sydney and Nowra and caught up in the air con unit of the refrigerated truck body.
He miraculously is okay, but will undergo a full body xray to make sure.
In the meantime, some cuddles and fruit are going down just fine as he starts to recuperate tonight.

07/04/2025

It's and although the weather is starting to take that turn in to Autumn, the microbats and bugs are still very much active.

This absolutely gorgeous Eastern Bentwing Bat, Miss Daisy, ended up in trouble while chasing moths around the street and collided with a car. Luckily, not going at a high speed and she has no injuries, miraculously. She is enjoying a short recovery before being released again.

The Eastern Bentwing Bat lives in large roosts in caves along the east coast of Australia. Come winter, they will migrate back to their winter roosts, which can be up to 300kms away. It's important to get Miss Daisy back out in the wild soon so she can join her roosts mates in their migration. During winter, they will breed and in summer females will return to their maternity roosts to raise a single baby each.
The third finger is longer than the others, which gives this bat a distinct fold of the wing, hence the name.

23/03/2025

One of the juveniles showing off how big and scary she is with her 'big wings' pose.

The wing of a flying fox is essentially elongated fingers covered in membrane, similar to human hands. They have a thumb at the top and 4 fingers stretched between a membranous skin that has nerve endings and blood vessels that support their long distance flight. They also use their wings to hold their babies, cover themselves in the rain and cooling themselves down by flapping. Their thumb is used as a hook to climb around the trees and to hold themselves while they invert to urinate or defecate.

22/03/2025

A very special congratulations are due for our handsome old man with the whiskers, Fletcher, who has officially completed year 3 of Creche Dad duties and again producing such wonderfully, wild and perfect juveniles suitable for release and survival in the wild.
A suitable adult is put in to creche once our hand reared babies are weaned to teach them all the correct behaviours that a wild bat should possess.
Thanks to Fletcher, another large group of kids are heading back out in to the wild with all the skills required for a long life.

03/03/2025

Its and we have been swimming in calls for microbats the past couple of weeks with bats being displaced, affected by heat, cat caught and several requests for advice for bats in roofs and outdoor umbrellas.
Pictured is the very pretty Eastern Broadnose Bat whose roosting spot of an outdoor blind got too hot over the weekend and she ventured out in to the danger of a local bird.
Thankfully only a superficial wound and she will soon be released back in to the wild.

19/02/2025

Our little miracle, Clementine. Coming in at only 58g originally, she is now a healthy 250g and just moving in to creche with the older babies.
That little smile 😍😍😍

17/02/2025

Inappropriately hung and unsafe netting causes the unnecessary deaths and injury to thousands of Wildlife every year.

How?
Animals seeking the food presented underneath become entangled in the large aperture or loosely hung netting. Entrapment injuries can range from mild to severe mouth and facial abrasians and wounds from trying to chew their way out, they suffer severe stress which can be fatal, heat exhaustion, sun burn or exposure to the elements, blood loss from constricton around wings and limbs which can lead to amputation or necrosis, strangulation from netting being pulled tightly around throats and broken bones from trying to fight their way free. Animals left entrapped die slowly and painfully from dehydration, stress and their injuries.

Prevention:
•When trees are not fruiting, remove unnecessary netting
•Only use wildlife friendly netting, less then 5mm mesh size and not the abrasive monofilament net
•Pull netting tightly over and tie off at base - don't leave hanging loosely and on the ground
•Check netted trees daily in case of entrapment
•Use fruit bags instead of net
•NEVER touch or handle a bat, don't try to release yourself, don't wait to call! Contact your local Wildlife Rescue service immediately for a trained and vaccinated rescuer to attend and assess.

16/02/2025

We've been pretty busy with barbed wire and fruit tree netting rescues this past week as natural food source is drying up and flying foxes are coming closer to ground to feed on backyard fruit trees.
Unfortunately not every one we have been able to save, but these 4 victims are now stabilising in care. Consisting of a lactating female without her baby, two older gentlemen and a juvenile male about 13 weeks old.

If you have netted trees, either remove to prevent entrapment or swap out for wildlife friendly options of fruit bags or small aperture netting.
Flowering or fruiting trees near barbed wire fences should be monitored or risk controlled by applying visible flagging or covering the top strand with conduit or split pipe and where possible, replacing with plain wire.
Never attempt to remove or handle a bat if not appropriately vaccinated, but contact us 24/7 for urgent rescues instead. The 24/7 hotline to phone is 0418 427 214, don't text or send messages via social media as these may not be seen immediately.

Shout out and thanks to our volunteer rescuers, transporters and carers and our friends with LAOKO and WIRES who we work together with to coordinate rescues around our region.