Now, who wouldn't love to hold a fox that doesn't bite? Australian health authorities.

The recent discovery of the Lyssavirus on a flying fox (Pteropus giganteus) prompted health officials to warn Melbourne residents to keep hands off the animals, especially wounded or sick ones.

The Lyssavirus can be transferred from bats to humans by getting scratched or bitten by an infected animal, as in rabies (though rabies does not exist in Australia). The two viruses - related, but different - are believed to cause the same symptoms. These include: headache, fever, malaise, sensory changes around the site of the bite or scratch, excitability, an aversion to fresh air and water, weakness, delirium, convulsions, and coma, according to SA Health.

Death is said to follow days after the onset of symptoms. There is vaccine available for anyone who gets infected, but it must be administered soon after contact.

Four kinds of bats within the continent have been identified with the virus, including the Grey-headed flying fox that is common to Melbourne. Two deaths have been recorded from contact with the bats in Queensland in the mid-1990's.