Adopt Tristan

Species: Grey-Headed Flying Fox

With an average wingspan exceeding a metre, flying foxes can easily bridge the gap from one powerline to the next. One warm, restless December night, Tristan’s mother tried to do just that. She was out foraging in the dark, guided only by instinct. Reaching from one live wire to another, she made an innocent, fatal mistake. In a single, blinding surge, her life was ended by electricity.

At dawn, her lifeless form dangled from the wires, silhouetted against the rising sun, a stark, haunting image of nature colliding with human infrastructure. Yet there was something else. An observant passerby noticed movement at her chest. Could it be? We were called immediately, our hearts pounding with hope and dread. Peering through binoculars at the tragic scene, we saw him: a tiny pup, clinging desperately to his dead mother. He was pressed tight to her, refusing to let go of the only safety he had ever known. Even in death, she sheltered him as best she could.

We called Energex without hesitation. Their team responded with compassion and urgency, carefully recovering the mother’s body and freeing the fragile life still bound to her. When they handed him to us, he was severely dehydrated, weak and trembling, but miraculously free of burns, spared the violent end that claimed his mother. We named him Tristan. He was only 3.5 weeks old.
From the start, he fought with astonishing spirit. He bonded quickly with his new human mum, needing five bottles of specially formulated flying fox milk each day, sucking hungrily at the life-saving nutrition. As the weeks passed, he grew stronger, his diet expanding to fresh apple, pear, mango, grapes, paw paw, and sprays of native flowers, wild flavours preparing him for the world he would one day reclaim.

At 12 weeks, Tristan joined other orphans in crèche. Together they learned the skills they’d need to survive: building muscle, honing their flight, developing the social bonds essential for their kind. At dusk, they would practice soaring in safety, wild hearts beating in unison, longing for the open skies.