The bat swivels around to regard us, eyes wide and confused, wings folded protectively across its salt-and-pepper body. One of its wings is mangled—the result of getting entangled in fruit netting. “Bat wing membranes are like skin, it will heal and grow back,” says Jan Virgo, animal rights activist and founder of the non-profit Colac Otway Bat Shelter. But Dixie, as Virgo has named her, has another problem. She’s lactating and her baby is missing. This is the regular plight of the grey-headed flying fox, a species of megabat, or…
