Reposted in full from Adelaide Now/Sunday Mail, 9 January 2011
'Torrential rain has brought chaos to parts of Australia, and not just to the humans who live there.
Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre director Trish Wimberley and her carers have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks. They saved 350 young bats during the 2008 storm season but this year think there's more going on than just wild weather.
Carers have visited several bat "camps" on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs. Trish said: "They're coming down to feed on the ground. That makes them vulnerable. It's not a natural occurrence and shows there is trouble in the environment. Bats are a barometer to what is going on in the environment. They're our canaries down the coal mine."
The babies will be bottle fed and kept hanging on clothes lines or in intensive care units until they are ready to fly again in about four weeks.'
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