‘They look straight through your soul’: The art of raising bats

This is not your typical wildlife rescue centre.

For more than a year, Melbourne artists Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison have been caring for injured grey-headed flying foxes in the backyard of their Victorian terrace in Fitzroy.

Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison with rescued bat Esme. Credit:Simon Schluter

They have fed them cow’s milk from tiny bottles, cuddled them in handmade blankets that replicate the wings of their mothers and nurtured them until they are ready to gently be released back into the wild.

“It is quite extraordinary because all of a sudden you’re at home with a threatened species that is critical to biodiversity, and you’re the one responsible for this little life,” Jennison said.

Haby and Jennison have dealt with a plenty of challenges over the years, caring for ring-tailed possums and rescue cats cases.

But it’s the bats – which they say are among the most misunderstood mammals in the world – that have surprised them most.

Esme enjoys her lunch of cow’s milk.Credit:Simon Schluter

“They’re so ancient, loving and intelligent,” Jennison said. “They’ve been around for millions of years. They look up at you with those brown eyes and they just figure you out. They look straight through your soul.”

She said there were many misconceptions about bats, including that they were scary, disease ridden or blood suckers. Their reputation has not been helped by unproven theories that the coronavirus had originated from bats.

In fact, flying foxes are among cleanest and most well-groomed wildlife they’ve ever cared for. They are also crucial to keeping our native forests healthy, dispersing seeds and pollinating flowering plants and trees every night.

“They’re like an umbrella species,” Jennison said. “Without them there are no trees. There’s no eucalyptus and no forests.”

When The Sunday Age met the artists, who have been working together for more than 20 years, they were caring for their seventh rescued bat: a tiny, playful pup called Esme. She was found in a suburban driveway, just eight days old, after being separated from her mum.

Esme was born outside the usual bat breeding season, a concerning – and increasing – trend. “It is another warning sign of our climate emergency,” Jennison said.

Rising numbers of bats are also being injured across Melbourne as human development encroaches into their colonies. An increase in barbed wire and illegal fruit netting has also seen more flying foxes getting tangled, injured, trapped and even killed.

It was during their daily walks at Yarra Bend in Fairfield throughout the city’s COVID-19 lockdowns that the artists were struck by majestic nature of the grey-headed flying foxes, who soar through the night sky in their thousands, searching for tree blossoms and fruit.

Haby and Jennison at their exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

They loved how fiercely protective the mothers were of their babies and the “nursery trees” full of young bats being tended to by their elders at the riverside colony.

The bats, who have been listed as vulnerable to extinction under national environment law, have become the latest muse for the artists.

As part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Melbourne Now exhibition, Haby and Jennison have created an extraordinary 35-metre-long collage depicting a reimagined habitat for the bats.

Their rejuvenated forest is a collage that adorns the walls from ceiling to floor and draws on more than 100 existing works at the gallery, showing an idyllic habitat, free from human development, nestled in the banks of the Birrarung, the original Wurundjeri name for the Yarra.

There are lush, towering trees with hanging bats and native Australian plants including eucalyptus and blooming bottlebrush. When the forest is illuminated, it shifts from green mornings to nocturnal blues against a 24-minute sound loop.

The world’s top scientists delivered their “final warning” this week in a United Nations report on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert.

The artists hope their exhibition will serve as another reminder of the urgency to act now to protect the environment.

“There is a massive climate emergency out there, and we all need to step up individually,“Jennison said.

“I hope the work inspires people to reciprocate with nature in whatever way they can. It can be a glorious thing because you reconnect with what’s important and why we’re here.”

Haby said she hoped the exhibition would help people understand bats and the crucial role they play in the environment.

“We hope we can make as many people as possible fall in love them, understand what they do and change their perception,” she said. “Instead of being scared of them, they could start seeing it as a privilege to live close to a colony.”

Haby and Jennison hope their work will serve as another reminder of the urgency to act now to protect the environment.

Their exhibition, titled the remaking of things, will be on display at the Ian Potter Centre at the National Gallery of Victoria until August 20.

A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.

Most Viewed in National

From our partners

Source: Read Full Article