Little Eco and I were delighted to be greeted by this sweet little face when we investigated some rustling in our Banana plants this afternoon. How can I be annoyed that almost all our bananas have been gobbled up when the thief is this cute? It's a threatened Grey-Headed Flying-fox.

As you can see, she (or he?) is sadly a little injured. Flying-foxes are social animals and they roost together. It was still daylight and she was alone - not a good sign. After looking closer at the photograph and seeing the injuries I went back out to take a better look and she was startled and flew off. I hope she's OK - but to be honest I don't like her chances. I've looked out for her a few times tonight but she hasn't returned. If she does i'll phone WIRES.

Coincidently, only this morning, I was reading this brand new web page on Flying-foxes and their conservation. Some of you may recall my horror at having a Banana farmer tell me they shoot Flying-foxes to protect their crops. I've also posted in the past about how sad I am at how we treat these gorgeous creatures. They've moved into urban areas only because we've cleared most of their habitat leaving them nowhere else to live! So i’ve decided to sacrifice our current bunch of Bananas and leave them for the Flying-foxes to enjoy. In the future for every bunch I bag to protect, I’ll leave a bunch for them to enjoy. That sounds fair.