Rex

---

Australia is all about animals and the incredible landscape (and drinking, but I don’t drink alone). Since I can only think of so many ways to say the view was incredible, beautiful, amazing, etc, it looks like you are going to read a lot about animals. So here’s another one.

Rex is a flying-fox (fruit bat) that visitors to the Bat House in Cape Tribulation may meet. The bat housed is run by a group of volunteers and one flying fox a day is on brought to the house from the nursery for visitors to learn about. The nursery is primarily for injured bats to recover and be released into the wild. The bats that spend the day at the bat house are permanent residents because they can’t be returned to the wild. Rex was orphaned, raised by humans and never learned how to be a bat in the forest. On the plus side though, Rex is extremely friendly and will demand attention by chattering if he is ignored. When I met him he was hanging upside down munching on half a banana. Flying foxes can’t digest fiber so they keep the fibers from the fruit in their mouths as they eat and sit out a little fiber pellet when they are finished. Not one of their endearing qualities. One habit that is impressive is their bathroom habits. When they gotta go, the flip right-side up and so that the dropping don’t end up all over them. Flying foxes also clean themselves like cats. Not filthy animals after all. Rex is small and has a wingspan of about a meter but flying foxes can have wingspans up to 2 meters. He can also see well and if he were in the wild he would use his vision to find food not sonar. He is one of six species of mega-bat that inhabit Australia (there are no mega-bats in the US 😞 ).

The flying fox eats mostly fruit and nectar and can eat up to half it body weight in a day. This gets them into orchard owners and in Queensland, orchard owners can get permits to shoot flying foxes. The owners do not go after birds, which also cause crop damage. As a result, the decline of flying foxes has been enormous. Since bats including flying foxes are the major contributors to pollination and seed dispersal (more so than birds or insects) this poses a threat to the Daintree rainforest. Because of prejudices against bats (such as they get in you hair, or suck your blood), the flying fox’s plight is often overlooked. Hopefully, my pictures (once I am finally able to post them) will help rid the fear of bats of anyone who sees them. Not surprisingly, (see my travel blog userid) I had to let you know about these adorable bats (yes I wrote adorable), because of how much I like them.

The other thing I learned at the Bat House was how easy it is to build a bat house in your back yard!!!

---

Comments

[Kate L.]

hmmm
not adorable. the wallabye...adorable. jenks...adorable. rex...not so much. but i'm intrigued that the flying fox can eat half it's body weight. too bad we don't retain the same powers when dining at cold stone.....