Tiny December
Wildlife Care
As Tiny but Wild slowly prepares to round out its second year, the Grey-headed flying fox pups, June, Harp C. Chord, Ludwig, and Fennel, have graduated to sleeping out under the stars; and the possum quartet, Humphrey, Albertina, Homer, and Pansy, are on track for a March soft-release. They are all, in their way, an extended study in plushness, exploration, ability and flexibility, and a fair dash of contentment. Seeing them develop and grow in confidence, as well as bodily developments, remains the stuff of dreams (and a fair amount of washing and long hours in the juggle of all things).
They are joined by Merlin, a juvenile Gould’s wattled bat, who’ll remain with us until he has learned to fly. Having come into care around the same time as delving into the soil thanks to The Secret Life of Fungi with Merlin Sheldrake, at the Melbourne Recital Centre, in a continuation of pattern, of course fungi leanings would play a part in our naming of this ‘gouldie’.
In addition, a further three pups have since come into our care. The triptych have been named after the colour of the wraps their rescuer, Michelle, had them wrapped in, with a nod to The Australian Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty livestream, we watched as we fed them. Ivo Brown, Flossie Green, and Petipa Pink have settled in, mastered fruit, and already peeled off to form friendship bonds with the others. Flossie, the littlest and also youngest is the loudest of all seven pups.
Further afield, Raisin, the tawny continues to thrive at Bat Rescue Bayside (as you can see in this video of her in the outdoor aviary). Seeing how far she has come, and noting how ready she is for her imminent soft-release, her return to the wild, time has certainly sped up in our observation of her process. She’s almost ready! The year’s almost done! The mornings are rolling around so quickly, they feel bound to overlap with each other. And Raisin, she opens her beak, and in hops a bug, drawn to that soft lemon hue of the inside of her throat.
“A mycelial network is a map of a fungus’s recent history, and it is a helpful reminder that all life forms are in fact processes not things.”
— Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, (London: The Bodley Head, 2020), p. 60.
Now that Homer, Pansy, Albertina, and Humphrey have settled in to their outdoor enclosure, and moved, of their own accord, from their suspended plush pouch to a new timber box, lovingly made by Peter, and hand-delivered with Felicity, ringtails at portholes are a beloved visual. A little nose sticks out, sniffs the news, and peers out further. Ringtails grasping fresh browse between their paws, also, especially when coupled with the minty smell released as they chomp. All these things are indicative of the quartet doing exceedingly well. It took ‘possum time’ to reach this goal of moving into a nesting box, and with two portholes, there might still be traffic jams, but they don’t last too long.
Lights! Camera! Hold it, like a possum! Emulating the ringies, as best we could, we recently took part in an interview series for Wildlife Victoria about their invaluable Travelling Veterinary Service. Filmed, in part, with The Jasper Picture Company at our Tiny but Wild wildlife shelter (and home and studio, all rolled into one), the pups and possums took it in their stride (for the brief, and controlled amount of time they were ‘on set’).
(Thanks for the photos of the two of us, posted below, Chelsie and Emel.)
Lastly, little Tashi (Tibetan for ‘good fortune’) has also joined us at Tiny but Wild after enduring a hair-raising ordeal, travelling on the freeway, from the outer suburbs to Parliament House, on the bonnet of a car. Tucked in by the windscreen wipers, she was not spotted until the car parked.
Since coming into care, she has rested and when not resting, she has feasted well.
Was she intentionally bound for parliament with a banner coiled in her marvellous tail, we’ll never know. Nevertheless, to help Tashi and her concerns about plans to establish a biodiversity offset fund, which, without stronger safeguards, risks becoming a “pay to destroy” scheme, allowing developers to pay money to skirt their obligations to protect nature, write to your local politicians on her behalf.
(Thanks to @georgie.purcell.ajp, @brandsam, and everyone in the Animal Justice Party office, and security at Parliament House for ensuring this little ringtail received the care she needed and deserved. Political poss, Tashi, is currently in a small enclosure to limit movement to her front left wrist for a few nights, and will graduate to a bigger enclosure, if she continues to respond well to the medications to treat her bone infection. She has old injuries, to her wrist and tail, caused by a cat attack. You can see her being treated by the @wildlifevictoria Travelling Veterinary Service by Dr Sarah and Bronwyn.)
As ever, please note: you need to be a qualified, vaccinated carer to handle megabats and microbats.
To that, as ever, whether your garden is green or covered in inflatable Santas, keep an eye out for wildlife on hot summer days. You could place additional containers of water outside in the shade (with obligatory sticks/rock bridges in them). You could offer additional shaded areas with a sheet, umbrella, or a tarp, and mist your garden throughout the day to reduce the temperature, thereby helping any wildlife sheltering to cool down. It all adds up.
As ever, little and often.
Image credit: Homer stares into the middle distance; Homer approves of the browse, December 2025.
