Fran Farmer wrote:
On 15/01/2015 12:59 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
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:

http://s1086.photobucket.com/user/Ha...ml?sort=2&o=35



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.


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.

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.

--
David

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