The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Flippin’ heck, that was a special delivery of a baby bat pup!
STAFF at Northumberland Zoo have witnessed the birth of a critically endangered Livingstone’s Fruit Bat pup. This behaviour had never previously been caught on camera, and people can now see the special birthing process.
The keepers noted female bat Selene was behaving abnormally, and realised she was going into labour.
For the next couple of hours, Selene kept flipping herself up and hanging from her thumbs, in order to induce the birth with the help of gravity.
After two hours of labour, Selene did one final flip and pushed the pup out, where it hung suspended from just the umbilical cord for around 11 seconds before the mother turned upsidedown again, allowing the pup to grab on to her.
The keepers then saw another female bat, Sima, rush over to help Selene with cleaning the bat pup. Four-year old Sima is the mother of Hadrian, a male bat who was the first ever bat pup born at Northumberland Zoo in November last year.
A scientific paper will be published regarding all of the events, behaviours and interactions that were caught on film pre and post birth.
A second female, Thea, also gave birth to her first pup over the Mother’s Day weekend in the same way.
With only 1,200 of this type of bat left in the wild and just over 100 of them in captivity, these pups are vital to the future of the species.
Both pups are doing well. Their sexes will be determined at the first vet health check.
Zoo curator, Maxine
Bradley, said: “For a moment there, we thought it was all over as we watched, helplessly, from 20 metres away, but we were then relieved to see Selene pull through and do such a great job.”
To watch the video of the birth, click the link to the Northumberland Zoo Youtube page.