Typically, the mother has died from tick paralysis.

"We find a lot of mothers found on the ground in the rainforest with a paralysis tick," volunteer Ashleigh Johnson told BuzzFeed.

"This is the time of year they have their one baby a year, October to December. Bats have only been coming into contact with paralysis ticks since the mid-1980s. We think that's because of a change in feeding behavior, when wild tobacco was accidentally introduced from South America. The flying foxes come down low to eat the berries and pick-up the ticks. The tick has a powerful neurotoxin that can kill a small horse, it's extremely potent. The bats have no immunity, they get paralyzed within a couple of days, drop out of their trees and die. We search through the colony once a day from September to December, pick-up the orphans and care for them."