In the same breath, I am absolutely aghast at the scare mongering comments made.

Phooey! In my experience as a wildlife carer of more than 23 years, I know that you cannot be infected with the Lassa virus from just handling these bats.

You cannot be infected by them splashing their urine or faeces onto your skin.

This virus must be directly passed from the animal straight to the person’s “exposed” tissue, nerves or mucous membranes.

Bites, scratches or splashes of infected blood or urine into a person’s eyes or nose can cause infection.

Thoroughly washing the wound or mucous membranes with soap and water is the most effective way to reduce the risk of transmission.

How simple is this? The only people likely to be handling these animals are qualified wildlife carers.

Some of these people deal with no other animal than the grey-headed flying fox and to my knowledge there have been no problems so far.

I commend Maurie Lewis for supporting the flying foxes and totally agree with him that they are greatly persecuted, they are endangered and will only be visiting temporarily.

I find the comparison of the flying foxes with the possums rather amusing. They are both extremely beautiful, but being a wild native animal, who other than a wildlife carer would be rescuing them if injured?

May I recommend that if anyone is interested in observing our unique visitors, they do so at a safe distance as all of our native animals suffer immense stess - we lost many last summer in the extreme heatwave and they need time to recover.

Did you know that flying foxes have a sophisticated system of communication based on more than 20 different calls? Each call is unique and has a meaning or conveys a message.

Some of these calls signify danger or distress, or tell other bats to keep away from the area or come to the area.

So please enjoy them while they are still here. I know I’m going to!

TRISH PILLING,

Pillaroo Wildlife Shelter,

Bendigo