Mum and baby Colugo
26 March 2014 – Wednesday
At about 4 pm I received a called from The Datai villa manager, his staff found an injured “bat with a baby attach to it” at the beach villa. I asked how is the bat face look like?; a dog or a flat face Persian cat?. He said looks like a dog, so I thought maybe it’s a fruit bat. We told him we will be on our way there to pick up the bat.
Meanwhile he sent me a thumb nail size picture. I immediately recognized it’s a colugo with the baby on her belly. This is so daunting.. colugo is very hard to look after. There is no record of colugo able to survive in the care of human being. I looked after a mum and baby colugo in year 2000. She was mob by a group of macaque and she fell down from the tree and landing head down to the parking area. Mum died the day after, followed by baby 4 days later. It was so sad experience for me. Although looking back I knew it was hopeless situation. When I got her she had blood on her nose. Not good sign.. Baby colugo just won’t make it without their mother.
Shakira went to pick up the colugo. She reach the villa around 5pm and bring them to pasir tengkorak where I was waiting. Looking at mum, I thought she was dead. Shakira said she was still alive when she fetches mum colugo. We take them back to office.
Upon close inspections, I realized that mum colugo is still alive! although very faint breath. She sustain a long cut wound on her head (2cm), bleeding on the both sides of her mouth and one eye gone/punctured. Not good at all. This would be so tough. Good thing is the baby fine.
We got first aid out of the car, I cleaned the wound. Meanwhile Shakira was googling to find out what can we do to help them. Not much info online except they eat nectar, fruits and leaves. We called Irshad who was in Bali for advice.
Following Irshad advice, Shakira went home to get bach flower remedy and homeopathy arnica for injury. We gave her a drop of bach flower rescued remedy and arnica 30potency and left them to rest. Interestingly I notice mum colugo have a very faint flowery sweet fragrance smell like some very expensive organic soaps. I mention this to Shakira. We both ended up smelling and wanting to kiss her. But Alas… I recalled Irshad said to minimized direct contact with them to avoid making them more stress.
That night I woke up at 1am and could not go back to sleep. I just could not sleep thinking about them. Would she make it through the night ???. I wish morning will come faster so I can go to see her.
