Last update - 00:00 06/06/2007
Wounded, handicapped bat gives birth at Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem
By Jonathan Lis
Two months ago, Debbie, a 5-year-old fruit bat, broke her thumb when her hand became entangled in a net. For bats, this can be a fatal injury - but Debbie has managed to give birth and raise her cub.
Debbie is part of a flock of handicapped giant bats that were adopted by the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem a few years ago. All the bats in the flock are unable to fly, and they spend most of their time hanging from the ceiling with their heads dangling toward the ground.
"A bat with a broken thumb has an even harder time than a bat that cannot walk or fly. Without a thumb, he cannot grip things or move, and he cannot grab fruit to eat," says Idit Dror, who is responsible for the Australian exhibits in the zoological garden. "A bat with an injured thumb has very little chance of survival."
The zoo staff, headed by veterinarian Dr. Nili Magen Avni, decided to try to rehabilitate Debbie, realizing she might have to be put to sleep. They cared for her for several weeks, inserting a pin into her thumb to stabilize the fracture, changing the bandages and treating the inflammation.
To their surprise, in the midst of the treatment, they discovered Debbie was pregnant.
"We noticed she was gaining weight rapidly," Dror said. "It was clear she must be pregnant. A bat's gestation takes six months, and Debbie had been pregnant for a few weeks."
From that point, ensuring the safety of the fetus became the staff's primary concern. "We wanted to make sure that Debbie was able to care for her cub with a bandaged thumb and such limited movement," Dror said.
Debbie was put into a separate enclosure to reduce the physical strain. About three weeks ago, hanging from the ceiling of the enclosure, Debbie gave birth to a healthy male cub.
"Debbie invests a little more in the cub than she invests in herself, and this is holding back her recovery. She is a very good and warm mother, and she strokes him and keeps him clean. She is constantly taking care of him," Dror says.
This is the fourth cub to be born to this group of fruit bats and to survive. The group includes one male and six females. The bats, whose wing span reach some 120 centimeters, arrived in Israel about two and a half years ago from Sydney, where they had undergone a prolonged period of rehabilitation. Even though they cannot fly, the adult bats move around the ceiling with their feet.
These fruit bats are also known as Australian flying fox bats, because of their brown fur and their fox-shaped heads. In Australia, they are not regarded as special, and are on show in only one zoo there. However, they are considered a protected species. Because they are protected, it is illegal to take them out of the country - which created problems for the staff at the Biblical Zoo, which had to work hard to convince the Australian authorities to let it acquire the bats. However, farmers and rangers are permitted to shoot them to protect crops. Nowadays farmers hunt them for no good reason - the bats eat only ripe fruit, and modern-day farmers pick their fruit before it is ripe.
Ultimately, the Australian authorities were convinced, and the flock of bats was sent to Jerusalem.