Transporting flying-foxes to the Shoalhaven

Описание: The Sydney release aviary is closed for maintenance and for baby season but the Shoalhaven Bat Clinic release aviary is still open till their own babies start to come in (they're about 2-3 weeks later than our season).
Sydney is having a really light season. The Shoalhaven hasn't had a baby come in yet, so they have agreed to take 12 of our batties for release, which will mean the boys get released much sooner.
One of the boys damaged his wingtip on the transport, so he was returned for vet care, but the other 11 will be released in the next release cycle.
We are indebted to Janine for organising this and taking the time to give these boys an earlier release than we can offer.

Well, we are indebted to her for release, but that doesn't mean I'm prepared to relinquish my baby to her in exchange. I actually did check between Janine's boobs before I drove off, in case she had kidnapped little Caltrops during our time at the aviary and had him stashed between the mammaries to hide him till we had left.
Fortunately I didn't video the inspection - I'm not quite that crass.

The Shoalhaven Bat Clinic is about 2.5 hours south of Sydney. Their colony is in residence, so they have somewhere to release our extras.
Mara and Forki are in the release cage (on the other side of the creek) so I didn't see them - but they'll be out in the wild within the week.

I did put up some pix of 2 of the batties in the aviary who had babies - just so you can see how the babies look on them. It's not always easy to spot

YAY