“There’s a small, furry animal, wrapped up in a handkerchief, keeping warm inside my shirt.”

So begins a 1989 documentary featuring the late ABC broadcaster Richard Morecroft, one of Australia’s most celebrated news anchors. But Morecroft had another deep passion – for wildlife rescuing and advocacy.

Mikla Lewis, a co-founder of the Australia’s largest wildlife rescue group, Wires, was working in the organisation’s office in the late 1980s when she got a phone call from a wannabe volunteer.

“The phone rang and he said: ‘Hello, I’m Richard Morecroft and I’d like to join Wires. And those were his exact words, I still remember it,’” Lewis tells the Guardian.

“Obviously it would’ve been quite a shock, or a wonderful surprise.”

Lewis took Morecroft’s details and, soon after, heard of a baby flying fox that needed a caretaker. That little creature was Archie, a tiny bat he bottle-fed, wrapped in nappies and kept under his shirt at the ABC and under the desk at times while he was presenting the news.

The flying fox, and Morecroft’s role as devoted foster parent, was the subject of the documentary and a stand-alone book, both called Raising Archie.

“I don’t even know how well known it was that he was raising a flying fox,” Lewis says. “He loved that little bat.”

At the time, flying foxes were maligned and targeted in some parts of Australia. Large colonies were often unpopular in suburban areas due to their smell and loud shrieks. But Lewis and her band of volunteers, Morecroft included, knew they were special.

“It’s not their fault that there’s not enough forest and bushland for them,” she says.

Morecroft’s time with Archie became a key point of celebration as tributes flowed in this week after his death. He was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, heralded Morecroft’s “unyielding humanity”.

“He loved the arts and was deeply passionate about our natural environment,” Albanese said in a statement.

“Nothing completed the picture so delightfully as the time we learned that he used to keep a baby flying fox safe and sound beneath the desk while he was presenting the news.”

After his time raising Archie, Morecroft remained a lifelong supporter of Wires, volunteering as an auctioneer at an annual fundraiser in Sydney.

Lewis says Morecroft would present on the ABC’s 7pm news bulletin then “hop in a taxi and come sort of running in down the hallway” to help raise funds.

“Richard played a bigger role than just Archie,” Lewis recalls, saying he used his media expertise to help train Wires volunteers and generally “offered his services for anything that needed”.

“He was very, very generous. He was just the loveliest man.”

Morecroft bottle-fed Archie, wrapped him in nappies and kept him under his shirt. Photograph: ABC

Morecroft wasn’t able to make it to the group’s 40th anniversary earlier this year due to problems with his health.

But his time raising Archie and championing the efforts of Wires have left a lasting impact on the wildlife group’s work.

“The whole point of fostering these flying foxes wasn’t to make pets of them, but giving them the best possible chance of getting them back to their natural environment,” Morecroft said back in 1989.

“If everything goes well, they join the colony, and they don’t come back.”