Fruit bat pup loses one mother, gets two in return

They might be a bad omen for several others, but for these two Prabhadevi women, a newly born one-and-a-half inch fruit bat pup is nothing less than a child. The pup's mother was found dead after being entangled in a manjha that cut through her wing. Since then, Dr Shivani Tandel and her friend Gayatri Sarang have not only played a mother to the pup, but are even feeding it human milk to keep it alive. Two rescuers brought the injured mother bat to Dr Tandel's veterinary clinic in Prabhadevi on March 3. "The bat was already dead but something suddenly moved and we realised that a just-born pup was clinging to it. It was holding on tight to its mother's nipple and wouldn't let go. I cut a catheter, modified it, and put it in the pup's mouth. Only then could we detach it," said Tandel.

Tandel immediately fed the pup a weaning formula and took it home. "It was having trouble digesting it and threw up. Being a vet and now a lactating mother, I knew there can be nothing better than mother's milk. I pumped out some of my own milk and found that the bat was able to digest it and was responding well," she said, adding that her decision to feed the bat with human milk was not only backed by science but also a mother's instinct.
"I had seen the little one clinging to its dead mother, which had stirred me up. It came very naturally to me to save this one. All I had to do was pump a small quantity of milk for it," she said.

There, however, was another problem – a cat at Tandel's home. She then decided to phone her friend Sarang, who has been rescuing and fostering animals and birds for over a decade now. Sarang said, "I was excited that for the first time, I would get to foster a bat. Since March 4, Bruce Wayne, as we call the pup now, has been with me. At the moment, it only feeds on human milk and has around 6ml a day. It sleeps most of the time. I keep him wrapped in a baby napkin, covered with a cloth."

​She added that she was really touched by Tandel's gesture, as it was her milk that was helping the pup survive. Sarang even carries Bruce in her small sling purse, all curled up and sleeping in the napkin when she travels, to get it used to the movement that its mother would have given in natural conditions. "It plays around and latches itself to my fingers and hangs upside down, flapping its wings. At times, it even digs its nails deep into my skin. Now that 10 days have passed, we will begin introducing it to fruit juices and soon whole fruits. We might even try small captive release to teach it to hang around and feed on its own, so that it does not depend on humans," she said.

Sarang added that she is in touch with Pune-based Devna Arora of Rehabber's Den, who has raised and rehabilitated several orphaned animals, including a micro-bat (insect eating bat) and is updating her with Bruce-related developments. She said she will follow all necessary steps to finally release it. 

While both Sarang and Tandel have been receiving a lot of positive feedback for their work, they have also been cautioned. "People have told me about the bad omen, how bats can suck blood and transmit deadly diseases to human. I myself have been reading a lot and found out that there are so many myths associated with bats. But no one can deny the important role they play in maintaining ecological balance," said Sarang, adding that their mission now is to ensure that their 'Batman' was soon out on his wings and flying the streets of Mumbai.