Orphaned baby flying foxes find a new home - PHOTO

These adorable baby flying foxes are orphans but they’ve been hanging out in a new comfy home with their own blankets, bottles and dummies.The tiny Australian natives are being cared for at a special flying fox nursery at Wildlife Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.Just weeks old, all have lost their mothers to various accidents such as being electrocuted while flying into power lines.Wildlife Victoria volunteers are helping to keep them safe and healthy until they are old enough and strong enough to return to their colony.The volunteers are working round the clock to refill formula bottles, rotate dummies and swaddle them in blankets to help them feel secure.Baby flying foxes have a very strong bond to their mother and are completely dependent on them in the first few weeks of life, clinging constantly to them for food, security and warmth. They are flightless at this time.Rescuers often give babies dummies to imitate their natural behaviour suckling to their mother's underarm nipples.The older orphans are also getting practice hanging on cables in the nursery.The city of Melbourne has a flying fox population of around 6,000 – which can swell to more than 30,000 over summer when babies are born.The bats fly up to 31miles (50 km) every night in search of food and disperse up to 60,000 seeds during their journey.Their numbers have been decreasing in the neighbouring Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland which has led to a rising population in Victoria. Projects to plant more native trees in Melbourne and surrounding areas over the last 30 years has also attracted the bat species.

The flying fox is the largest bat living in Australia and grow to have an average wingspan of 1metre (3.2ft).

(dailymail.co.uk)

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