bat hospital - where baby bats are cared for until ready for release. WARNING - adorable pics

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2814142/Pictures-adorable-abandoned-baby-bats-swaddled-blankets-sucking-bottles.htmlInside Australia's BAT hospital - where adorable abandoned baby creatures are wrapped in blankets and fed with bottles
Abandoned baby bats have been pictured recuperating in hospital while swaddled in colourful blankets
The Tolga Bat Hospital is a community group working for the conservation of bats and their natural habitat. 
The furry critters are grounded due to tick paralysis 
About 300 baby bats are orphaned each year due to tick paralysis or because their mother is too ill to feed them  
Tick paralysis kills hundreds of bats every year on the Atherton Tablelands 

Volunteers at the hospital spend their time caring for the bats, nursing them back to health and then release them back into the wild when they are ready.

According to the Tolga Bat Hospital's website: 'caring for sick or young animals is like caring for sick or young humans, many tasks are very repetitive but your love and respect for the animals will make it very rewarding.'

Tick paralysis is killing hundreds of flying foxes in Australia each year.

[NV Whino]

1. Fascinating photos

Those are some big babies. Love the basket of bats.

[marzipanni]

2. Oh, how cute! Baby bat baths!

I love how each swaddled bat has a stuffed sock "surrogate mom" to cling to. And pacifiers! Flying foxes look so dog-like!

It's sad that they they have a endemic health problem with tick paralysis, and bats in North America are dying from
white nose syndrome (fungus).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_nose_syndrome

[BlueJazz]

3. Love me some Bats. Their Radar makes them extra special. I saw a show on Discovery Channel once...

...where the Bats were in a 12X12 dark room criss-crossed with wires flying around and missing all of the wires..Cool!

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. their faces are so sweet but then u see the feet. lol

[BlueJazz]

8. That's not their regular feet. They wear their "Halloween Feet" at this time of year.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

19. LOLOL! little known fact!

They're so loveable. I wish all the animals could be saved....

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. I love bats

I've run across quite a few in my life as a spelunker and cave enthusiast since I was a young boy in the early 60s. I don't find them ugly or frightening at all as some people do. They are generally quite valuable to humans, the insect-eating bats being important to farmers while the fruit-eating varieties important for pollination. The vampire variety are cool too for doing their thing..

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. And vampire bats have contributed so much to the colorfulness of our movies and literature

Something I've always wondered though. When Dracula/Bela Lugosi changes into a bat and flies through a young lady's window only to rematerialize as Dracula, where does he put his cape during that process? Does he shove it up some orifice, change into a bat, fly through the window, shape-hift back, and then withdraw it and drape it around himself once in the bedroom? Otherwise, Bela Lugosi would be running around the bedroom nude. And what effect would it have to be on an all-liquid diet of blood? Dracula would probably leave a trail of dark red diarrhea everywhere he goes, so that you could track down his movements when he changes into a bat and flies away. Spelunkers going into vampire bat caves in Mexico have noted watery pools of dark red excrement beneath roosting vampire bats.

[geardaddy]

6. I love bats, but those are one of the cuter varieties.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. cuter cuz the feet are covered

[Solly Mack]

10. Too adorable!

Precious!

[Autumn]

11. Such beautiful little creatures

so precious.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

12. OMG! OMG!!! SO CUTE!!!!!!

I LOVE Bats! They are my Favorite!! It's a tie with Dogs!

[shenmue]

13. Too much cute

[UTUSN]

14. Yes, they ARE adorable and cute. I had one get inside the house and it was cuddled up in a corner

and was totally adorable, but I called Animal Control, and they gently with big gloves picked it up and put it into a ziplock bag. They said they would test it. I hope that didn't involve executing it first.

[orleans]

15. i think if the ziplock bag had air holes that might be a good thing. if not.... n/t

[orleans]

16. so cute. they have their little pacifiers and even cuddle pillows in some of these pictures. n/t

[jmowreader]

17. They remind me of toy-breed puppies with wings

[WhiteAndNerdy]

18. Sweet little babies. :) nt

[valerief]

20. These bats have cute faces, not like those scary looking ones (see below).

[joeybee12]

21. Bats are wonderful...I fell in love with them at Carlsbad Caverns...

Their nightly display of exiting the caverns...thousands coming out into the sky...amazing.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. Carlsbad Caverns - truly one of the great natural wonders of thhe world

The sheer immensity of the underground chambers is staggering. And the millions of bats that come out of the entrance every night is something everyone should go see.

[joeybee12]

23. It's hard to get to...not really close to anything else,

but I highhly recommend it to everyone.

[brett_jv]

28. If you like Caves ... Mercer Caverns near Sonora CA is AMAZING ... some good wineries near there

You can also do Moaning Cavern on teh same day, they're pretty close to one another ... Moaning has a HUGE main chamber that you can rappel (sp?) down into (or take the huge circular staircase). Mercer is incredible for the dozens of types of stalactites and stalagmites on display. It's so colorful, it's totally breathtaking down there.

[meti57b]

24. Oh my!!! Excessive cuteness alert!!!!!!!!!!

[840high]

25. .....

[merh]

26. for bat lovers

great video at this link

http://www.motivious.com/orphaned-bat/

[merh]

27. and dancing bats

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=753005734773340&set=vb.100001917623117&type=2&theater