Black Flying foxes, just like their close relatives, the Grey-headed Flying-foxes are very social. Living by day in large camps (often made up of both species living shoulder to shoulder in complete harmony).

'Blacks', apart from being larger, share many similarities with the 'Greys', such as diet etc. The single young is carried by mum for 3-4 weeks, after which they are suckled back in camp, flying, and reaching independence at about 12 weeks.

Blacks, already listed as vulnerable in NSW, just like the Greys, come into care for three main reasons: In areas where power is above ground, both species often rest on power lines (usually the last thing they ever do), but miraculously the babies clinging to mum will often survive.

The second reason is entanglement in fruit netting, and on barbed wire fences, often resulting in quite horrific injuries.

The third reason is a large number of orphaned babies each spring. These orphans are raised by trained carers to approximately 12 weeks of age before being sent to creche (near Lismore in our case) to socialise with other 'teenagers' a few weeks prior to release.