Orphaned bats being kept warm in dusters. Trish Wimberley and her colleagues at the Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast after the recent floods in Australia. They saved 350 young bats during the 2008 storm season but this year think there's more going on than just wild weather. Carers have visited several bat 'camps' on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs. Trish said: "They're coming down to feed on the ground. That makes them vulnerable. It's not a natural occurrence and shows there is trouble in the environment. "Bats are a barometer to what is going on in the environment. They're our canaries down the coal mine." The surviving youngsters will be bottle fed and kept either hanging on clothes lines or in special intensive care units until they are ready to fly again in about four weeks

Photograph: Luke Marsden/Newspix / Rex Features