![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775181254_85_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Glenda Sinclair<\/p>\nA few weeks ago, a 4-month-old flying fox in Queensland, Australia, flitted out into the night for some food. As he made his way along the shoreline in the darkness, he ran into a beached sailboat and got caught in the rigging.<\/p>\n
The flying fox, later named Gary, thrashed about but couldn\u2019t free himself from the boat\u2019s ropes.<\/p>\n
By the next morning, Gary was exhausted \u2014 and still stuck.<\/p>\n
Glenda Sinclair<\/p>\n
Luckily, a couple who lived nearby with a view of the ocean woke up early to water their garden. They spotted a black blob moving in the rigging and knew an animal must be in trouble.<\/p>\n
Approaching slowly, they snapped some photos and sent them to their neighbor, Glenda Sinclair, an experienced wildlife rescuer with a background in veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe image of poor Gary stuck in the rigging of the abandoned yacht was very distressing,\u201d Sinclair told The Dodo. \u201cHe obviously was stuck and desperately trying to free himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775181255_97_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Glenda Sinclair<\/p>\n
Sinclair reached out to Wildlife Rescue Queensland<\/a>, but it would take an hour before anyone could arrive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sun was getting hotter,\u201d Sinclair said. \u201cAs you can imagine, it was very bright for a nocturnal animal to be caught out like that.\u201d<\/p>\n The neighbors watched little Gary struggle and didn\u2019t want him to get hurt. But there was one major hurdle: lyssavirus.<\/p>\n Lyssavirus comes from the same family as rabies and can be fatal to humans. Sinclair and her neighbors weren\u2019t vaccinated against it and had no idea if Gary was a carrier. They had to rescue the baby without touching him.<\/p>\n Thinking quickly, they grabbed a ladder and taped a mop to a long pool skimmer.<\/p>\n At first, Gary refused to budge. But, \u201cwhen the mop hovered over the top of him,\u201d Sinclair said, \u201che grabbed on and was lifted slightly up and freed. He fluttered to the ground, where we secured him with a towel and box.\u201d<\/p>\n When licensed rescuers with Wildlife Rescue Queensland arrived, Sinclair described Gary as a \u201ccranky little beast.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey have very sharp teeth, and he wasn\u2019t afraid to use them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Gary was transported to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, where vets treated him for some minor cuts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Bat Conservation and Rescue QLD<\/p>\n Since then, he\u2019s fully recovered and living in an aviary with Louella Harley, an experienced carer with Bat Conservation and Rescue QLD<\/a>. Harley said Gary is set to be released next week alongside 60 other orphaned and rescued flying foxes.<\/p>\n As for Sinclair, she was glad her neighbors were in the right place at the right time: \u201cAlways a great feeling to save a little life.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775181255_608_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Glenda Sinclair<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775181256_413_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
Glenda Sinclair<\/p>\n![\"Dad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775181256_951_flatten;crop;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
<\/a>Dad On A Stroll Sees Puffballs Caught In Barbed Wire Fence And Runs For HelpThey’d been there all night and couldn’t move.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few weeks ago, a 4-month-old flying fox in Queensland, Australia, flitted out into the night for some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,158419,86507,231474,341,106176,285070,19490,128,156,339,338,23788],"class_list":{"0":"post-581901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-wildlife","11":"tag-bat","12":"tag-bat-rescue","13":"tag-daily-dodo","14":"tag-flying-fox","15":"tag-flying-fox-rescue","16":"tag-sarah-ashley","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-standard","19":"tag-the-dodo","20":"tag-wildlife","21":"tag-wildlife-rescue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}