wildlife-arc.org.au

Nga Nga was born on a beautiful sunny day in Spring. His first recollection was being licked by his mother over and over and then being wrapped in her velvety wings with his mouth on her teet. He suckled her warm, sweet milk and then cuddled up and went to sleep.

He remembered waking up later to find himself clinging for dear life high, high in the sky, while his mother flew across the sky into another forest where she foraged on nectar and pollen of the giant forest trees. He stayed snug and warm under her wing.

He spent each day cuddled up, hanging on his mother with his mouth on Mea Mea's teat, and his body on her soft warm fur, with her wing holding him to her. When it rained his mother folded her wings around him so he remained warm and dry.
Life was very good.

One day Mea Mea said to him "Nga Nga you have become too heavy for me to carry when I fly out at night so you will have to stay here and I will come back in the morning. Be a good little Flying-fox and stay on a branch in the canopy with all your little friends whose mothers will be flying out too.
I will come back when the sun starts to come out at dawn."

Nga Nga was very frightened when she left him at the next sunset.
What if she did not come back?
What if an owl grabbed him in the night?
He stayed very close to the other little ones whose mothers had flown off to forage. When the sky began to lighten, all the little ones set up a chorus of calling for their mothers and gradually their mothers came back to claim them and cuddle them close and feed them.
Each dawn some mothers did not return and the babies kept crying and calling for days until they finally were eaten by birds or fell to the ground to die..
This was terrifying for all the babies left as they realized this could happen to them.

Mea Mea came back home safely each morning and Nga Nga grew bigger and bigger and as his mother taught him, he could now fly quite well.
His mother said one night, "Tonight you will come foraging with me as it is time you learned to be a big Flying-fox."

Nga Nga felt very grown up and that night he flew with his mother. He kept close to her and watched what she did. They went into the forest and he stuck his face in the pollen of the flowers until it was quite yellow. He also tried eating the flowers, but did not really like them, but he liked the honey nectar that he could squeeze out of the flowers if he chewed them. He could also have a drink of Mea Mea's milk when he wanted it. He enjoyed himself so much but was ready to go home as dawn broke and have a good sleep.