Bats of Adelaide City - Rescue, Rehabilitation, Conservation and Education

06/02/2026

04/02/2026

🦇Bat Heat Stress Event Update🦇

Summer can be a tough time for our wildlife and the wildlife rescue organisations who care for them.

While last week was a tough week for Fauna Rescue SA, we fared significantly better than our friends at Limestone Coast Wombat & Bat Rescue who sadly lost almost their entire colony. We are so saddened by this news and our hearts go out to our fellow rescuers and carers in the South East.

17 juvenile bats from Limestone Coast Wombat & Bat Rescue have joined the Fauna Rescue SA creche to assist with this catastrophe.

26/01/2026

Fauna Rescue SA's Bat Team has a flying fox emergency triage tent set up on-site throughout this heatwave 🦇☀️🦇. Please follow Green Adelaide's advisory.

If you see struggling bats on or near the ground, please call the Fauna Rescue SA Bat Hotline on 8486 1139.

Thank you 🙏

Give our bats space in the heat, and remember to never touch a bat 🦇 ☀️

This weekend’s hot weather can be challenging for our resident grey-headed flying foxes.

Unfortunately, grey-headed flying-foxes struggle with extreme heat, which makes this threatened species vulnerable during our summer heatwaves.

You might see bats hanging closer to water sources, such as the River Torrens, in the warmer weather. Give them space, and try to avoid the area.

But if you do find a bat in distress, it is important to contact a wildlife rescue operation, and not try to approach or handle the bat yourself. All bat species, including the grey-headed flying fox, are potential carriers of disease. It is safest not to touch them.

Instead, you can call Fauna Rescue’s 24 hour helpline on 8486 1139 or Bat Rescue on 0475 132 093.

23/01/2026

Adelaide's visiting and resident Grey-headed flying fox, a protected key-stone species, will be suffering another catastrophic Heat Stress Event (HSE) during the current heatwave.

Fauna Rescue SA Bat Team members will be on-site daily at Botanic Park, where specially-installed canopy sprinklers will be utilised in an attempt to mitigate mass mortalities.

In HSEs, flying fox, like koalas, naturally move into shadier areas and lower to the ground, seeking relief from the searing hot temperatures and winds. They are frightened and greatly disturbed by people, loud noises or vehicles moving underneath them and can fly up in distress, thus endangering them further due to unnecessary overheating.

When temperatures lower, the bats return to their usual roosting spots higher up in the trees.
Please keep these sensitive native creatures and the dedicated rescuers and carers in your thoughts over the coming days.

If you see bats roosting in trees, please give them a wide berth.

If you see any bats very close to or on the ground, please don't touch them. Stand back and call an experienced vaccinated rescuer for prompt assistance - Fauna Rescue SA Bat Hotline 24/7 on 8486 1139.

Thank you 🙏🏼

Volunteers found thousands of dead bats at Melbourne’s Brimbank park, wildlife expert says

09/11/2025

Request from our Flying-fox & Microbat Team

As we approach the season when flying-foxes unfortunately get caught in netting on fruit trees that isn’t wildlife friendly, our wonderful vet, Dr Trudy Seidel from Para Hills Vets, who treats and saves the lives of many of the Flying-foxes that come into our care, could make use of any Tegaderm that could be donated to us (out of date stock from hospitals is fine). Tegaderm is used on injuries to the wings of flying-foxes to keep wing membranes supple and assist with healing. If anybody can help, it would be much appreciated.

Collection can be arranged.

Many thanks, Fauna Rescue Flying-fox Team

31/10/2025

Tommy’s Release

A beautiful day for Tommy to fly free to rejoin his friends at the colony today.

One of our rescuers received a call from Shane, one of our hotline operators, one evening with a report of a bat on the ground in Norwood. Tommy was found on the pavement outside a house, opposite a small park area, convulsing and not in a good way at all. After looking around, it was discovered there were no power lines in the area, so not an electrocution. The rescuer immediately contacted Dr Trudy Seidel from Para Hills Vets, who could see him straight away. After examining him, he was diagnosed with a head injury, which was also affecting his ability to coordinate movement. Tommy stayed in the care of Trudy overnight and the following day and was very spoilt with regular hand-syringed juice!
When he was collected by the carer, he had improved greatly but still had uncoordinated mobility. After a couple of days, he was eagerly feeding himself, and over a couple of weeks, gradually his movements returned to normal.
Tommy is still a juvenile and must have been born as late as April this year. We suspect he must have had a hefty collision with something unknown to have caused the significant head injury.
Have a great life, Tommy!
Many thanks to Trudy for being there to help with so many of our rescues and to Michelle, the member of the public who reported Tommy in difficulty. 💕

If you find a bat alive or deceased
PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE BAT 🦇
Call the Fauna Rescue 24hr hot line: 8486 1139
and one of our vaccinated rescuers will attend to assist.
Any bat seen away from the colony during the day is in trouble and currently, during birthing season, a bat found on power lines could possibly have a live young attached, so please call with a location.

28/10/2025

The second baby who came into care early in October was little Stefan, who never got the chance to meet his mum. He was dropped during birthing, a devastating event for both baby and mum. Luckily Colby, one of our rescuers, was doing a colony check and was able to pick up Stefan promptly, wrap him to keep him warm, and notify carer Shane, who came to collect him. Stefan had his placenta still attached and was in need of immediate care.
3 weeks on, Stefan is thriving, putting on weight and sharing his incubator with his “sister” Jane, who arrived 2 weeks later.

If you find a bat alive or deceased
PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE BAT 🦇
Call the Fauna Rescue 24hr hot line: 8486 1139
and one of our vaccinated rescuers will attend to assist.
Any bat seen away from the colony during the day is in trouble and currently, during birthing season, a bat found on power lines could possibly have a live young attached, so please call with a location.

26/10/2025

Frankie was the first of this season’s babies to come into care and he was placed with Katrina, one of our experienced flying-fox baby carers. Frankie was found on the ground in the Botanic Park Colony by Colby and Chris, two of our rescuers, at the end of September when he was only 4 days old. He still had his umbilical cord attached. It was very touch and go for the first week, with 6 feeds a day of dripping milk into the side of his mouth. On top of his milk feeds, he had subcutaneous fluids injected twice a day.
He is now a little trooper and is feeding well and growing fast.

If you find a bat alive or deceased
PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE BAT 🦇
Call the Fauna Rescue 24hr hot line: 8486 1139
and one of our vaccinated rescuers will attend to assist.
Any bat seen away from the colony during the day is in trouble and currently, during birthing season, a bat found on power lines could possibly have a live young attached, so please call with a location.

23/10/2025

Hi All,

This is an important reminder for anyone who sees a Flying-Fox on power lines at the moment to immediately call our Fauna Rescue Bat Hotline as it is currently birthing season and a live young could be attached to its deceased mother. Babies often survive in this situation and can be retrieved and sucessfully hand-raised by one of our experienced carers.
This is the story of baby Jane:
Last Saturday afternoon, our hotline operator Shane received a report from Belle, a lovely member of the public, that she had seen a live baby with its deceased mother on a power line in Modbury North. Shane immediately called SA Power Networks to request that a crew be sent to the site as soon as possible, also dispatching one of our rescuers with binoculars to check on the baby.
When our rescuer arrived the baby was off her mother and hanging next to her, unfortunately in direct sunlight. This had made it easier for Belle to spot her and realise she was alive. The baby is often still on mum, curled up close to the body and not easy to see. Luckily, Jane moved back onto her mother later on and became shaded by mum’s wings.
The SAPN crew was extremely busy that afternoon and after a tense wait, Brad and Anthony arrived and quickly managed to remove the deceased mother straight into the rescue basket with baby attached to mother’s ni**le.
Little Jane was swiftly examined on site to check if she needed immediate veterinary care, but was found to be healty and uninjured. She was then taken to Shane, who is also an orphaned baby carer, where she was removed from her mother, examined further, measured and weighed, given a water feed for hydration and then a rest before a milk feed.
Jane is a very good feeder and has gained weight already!
A big thank you to the guys from SAPN, who always assist us when necessary, and special thanks to Belle, who returned later in the afternoon, whilst the rescuer was on site, to check if the baby had been removed from the line and kindly offered to go and get a drink or anything else they needed. We do meet some lovely people whilst helping wildlife.

If you find a bat either alive or deceased,
PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE BAT 🦇
Call the Fauna Rescue 24hr hot line: 8486 1139
and one of our vaccinated rescuers will attend to assist.

28/09/2025

Would you like to help us during any major Flying-fox Heat Stress Event that may occur?
Fauna Rescue Flying-fox Team are seeking expressions of interest for helpers to assist the team at Flying-fox Heat Stress Events (HSE) that may occur in the coming season. Not all the roles will require you to be vaccinated against rabies.
For insurance reasons, you must be a Fauna Rescue financial member to be able to participate.
If you wish to join Fauna Rescue, you can do so here: [https://www.faunarescue.org.au/membership/
Once you have joined, the ticket fee will only be $5 for members.
It is ESSENTIAL that you are able to attend our HSE Training Workshop 10.30am-1.00pm on Saturday 25th October 2025 at Fauna Rescue Headquarters, 24 Gaelic Avenue, Holden Hill 5088, if you wish to be part of the Flying-fox Heat Stress Event Team.
A Heat Stress Event can take place from November-March, when temperatures reach over 42 degrees, so you must be able to cope with those temperatures for periods of time. We get an indication by following weather forecasts when an event could happen. Often bats do not start to need help until the latter part of the day, so even if you work you could be of vital help from late afternoon into the evening or at weekends.
The course will cover:
A History of Heat Stress Events in Adelaide
The different roles of volunteers
Monitoring an HSE
Site set up
Role of the site Coordinator
Occupational Health & Safety
Stages of an HSE
When to assist the bats
Triage
Fauna Rescue HSE Policy
The non-vaccinated roles include:
Photographers to record the day's events (you do not need fancy professional equipment for this, good shots taken on a phone will be adequate), spotters of bats in difficulty, communications, respite and refreshment organisers, scribes for weights and measures of deceased bats.
We need to be open and not hide the fact that some Heat Stress Events can be extremely traumatic with many deaths (over 10,000 bats are estimated to have died in 2019/20 season's events), but if you feel you are able to participate, you will be invaluable in helping save many lives and Fauna Rescue and Adelaide's Flying-foxes are in need of your assistance.

https://www.simpletix.com/e/flying-fox-heat-stress-event-training-25-1-tickets-239157

This course is ESSENTIAL if you wish to be part of the Flying-fox Heat Stress Event Team. A Heat Stress Event can take place from November-March when temperatures reach over 42 degrees. We get an indication by following weather forecasts when an event coul

07/09/2025

25/08/2025

Please book your place if you wish to attend our Orphaned Flying-fox Hand-rearing Workshop on Saturday 20th September 2025 10am - 4pm at Fauna Rescue Headquarters, 24 Gaelic Avenue, Holden Hill 5088.
To become a carer of Flying-fox young you need to be, or become, a member of Fauna Rescue and have full time availability from October/November - January or work from home. You also need to be either already vaccinated against Rabies and obtain a blood test result showing your current titre or be willing to become vaccinated, which would need to be started immediately in order to be ready to handle bats by October/November. If you would like further information regarding the criteria for becoming a carer please email us at [email protected]. We would love to welcome some new carers to our team.
Tickets:
Fauna Rescue Financial Members $5
Non-members $25
Children under 16 years Free
Tea & Coffee provided.
** PLEASE BRING A PLATE FOR A SHARED LUNCH**

This is a full day course, covering all aspects of hand-rearing orphaned flying-foxes. To be able to hand-rear orphans you need full time availability from October/November -January and be vaccinated against Rabies with a proven immunity.