Nature pics

[pat]

At last someone has posted a pic on here! And what a cute one it is too. Thanks, Alan. Are possums happily received or unwanted visitors over there in the Antipodes? The only wild animals (apart from birds) that I get in my garden are hedgehogs and the occasional woodmouse. Some people are lucky enough to be visited by foxes or badgers but you need to live nearer the countryside for those, especially badgers.

[Alan W]

Possums are not universally welcomed, Pat. They can do a lot of damage to a garden, and if they set up home in the ceiling they are smelly and noisy apparently. Some of the lemons on our tree get nibbled skin, which is probably the possums' work, but I don't begrudge them a little zest in their lives!

A lot of the trees in parks here have metal bands around the trunks to stop possums climbing them. It seems to be mainly done on non-native trees, such as elms - maybe eucalypts are tough enough to withstand possum damage.

I've only seen them around the house a few times. As they're nocturnal, you never see them in the daytime, like you can squirrels in other countries, so it's rare to get such a clear view of one.

[technomc]

Up close and personal then....

Nice pictures. The cat looks a bit creepy eyed- perhaps that's why the possum looks so scared!!
We have nothing as exotic in our gardens...

[pat]

Some of the lemons on our tree get nibbled skin, which is probably the possums' work, but I don't begrudge them a little zest in their lives!

Groan. Good for you, Alan. I think a bit of damage is worth putting up with to have nature on your doorstep.

[birdy]

No matter how pesky, it's nice to have a bit of wildlife around - other than the neighbors' nearly grown children, that is.  Your possums are cuter than our opossums - not to be politically incorrect in implying that beauty is a valid criterion for comparing mammalian species - or even marsupial species.

I would have posted some photos from my visit to the Botanic Garden today, but alas, too large to post.

[Toni]

Wow, Alan, how lovely to have a visitor like that.  In the city here where I am we only get guinea fowl and hadeda ibises waking one at the crack of dawn and grey squirrels.  I love them although I know they are considered a pest (rats with good PRO).  The suburbs slightly closer to the mountain have a lot of trouble with baboons which can be very dangerous.  Unfortunately stupid people go on feeding them and they associate people with food.  A friend of mine was cooking in her kitchen when a large baboon walked in, helped himself to food from the table and left.  She said she stood there. rooted to the ground, which was probably the best thing to do, and her dog did the same!

I have also seen a porcupine wandering across the road not far from where I live.  I was surprised at how big it was.

[pat]

I had a scary experience with baboons in Uganda, Toni. I'd decided not to go on that day's group trek and instead went for a walk by myself along a rather traffic-free road. I saw a little face peering at me from a tree and was enchanted to see that it was baby baboon. Then I saw that mum was close by, which didn't bother me, but when I noticed that there was a whole troop of them, about 30 or so, my heart rate went up a bit! They were behind me so I carried on walking, only to have them all follow me. I went round a bend in the road, which put me temporarily out of their sight, and put a spurt on to get a bit more distance between us. No such luck - they kept up. When I stopped, they stopped. When I moved on, they came with me.

Eventually I knew I had to go back the way I'd come from. I turned round and the whole troop was in the road, doing whatever it is that baboons do - one pair was even having sex! Muttering to myself, "Show no fear, Pat, show no fear, Pat," I started walking slowly but confidently towards them. And guess what? They were more afraid of me than I was of them and when I got too close for their comfort they all scattered into the trees and looked down at me as I went past.

A memorable experience!

[birdy]

That IS scary, knowing how aggressive they can be, Pat.  I like animals, but I try to avoid close encounters of the dangerous kind.  B__ds luckily are mostly small enough to be fought off if they get difficult.

We have idiots who feed dangerous animals too, Toni - like alligators in Florida, or bears - though quite often that's not intentional - bears have learned to eat from our b__dfeeders.

But speaking of close encounters of the animal kind, did anyone see the short movie (not sure it was released in theaters) about Christian the Lion?  A lot of people have seen it on YouTube - so many, and so many times forwarded around, that a short movie was made showing the background of the YouTube clip.  It showed on Animal Planet last night.

[Linda]

You are the epitome of tact, b***y!  I promise I will not swoon if I see the word written out in full but it is so sweet that you are so very thoughtful! 

[technomc]

Birdy, i saw the documentary..it was very good. Sad though, to think that animals of that calibre are sold in department store...

[birdy]

I don't think they're sold in department stores any more, T.  That was back in the 60s, before the Endangered Species Act was passed here which would have limited sales like that.  I would assume that the UK had its own version of the act.

Though I suppose, technically speaking, lions aren't particularly endangered.  They breed very well in captivity - I remember our little local zoo (later called one of the nation's 10 worst until it was closed and completely renovated after it was taken over by the Wildlife Conservation Society [Bronx Zoo]) had two lions which produced multiple cubs every year.  Well, those poor lions had nothing better to do in the poor conditions in which they were kept.

[Toni]

Pat, that must have been more than scary!  Lucky you weren't munching a sandwich or something or the outcome could have been very different!

I haven't seen Christian the lion, so I suppose I shouldn't really comment, but one of the things that really gets me going is wealthy people who come out here and pay a lot of money to shoot a lion.  While I can just about accept that there needs to be some culling, I cannot accept that very often it is a "canned" lion, usually an old chap from a circus or zoo, who is put in the bush with a circle of beaters to drive him to a suitable spot for the kill.  It's the kind of thing that almost makes me believe in hell!  Every now and then when another case comes to light, there is an outcry, but than everything settles down again and it just goes on.  As do so many terrible cruelties, like dog fighting.

[smaug]

The story of Christian has taken off here in oz - the two young men who bought him and took him back to Africa were Australian. It all involved a lot of people including the actress from 'Born Free', Virginia Mc Kenna and George Adamson and makes a great story - Christian was 3rd generation captive bred so it is amazing that he rehabilitated. But the best bit is that he recognised the boys when they went back to Africa and it is this bit on YouTube that has so moved many people - look it it up.
The boys are men now of course and the whole thing changed their lives for the good.

We get stacks of possums here - the one in the picture is a ring tail possum that makes a nest of twigs called a 'dray' and the other type we commonly get is a brush tail possum - its the one that likes to live in the roof and they pee and smell and make a ruckus at night (being nocturnal as Alan said)The ring tails lke to travel along the electricity wires from place to place . We are very fortunate to have a lot of wildlife around Sydney - there are plenty of bats and large lizards (called Blue Tongues) and in the forested areas that dot Sydney there are even echidnas and other smaller possums and bandicoots. Plenty of birds of course.

[pat]

I totally and utterly despise people who slaughter animals for their own sick enjoyment, usually in the name of so-called 'sport'. My understanding of sport is where one person or team agrees to compete against an equally talented/armed or whatever person or team. How do defenceless animals feature in that? The people you describe, Toni, are contemptible.

One of the reasons I hate our royal family is that they're all very keen on killing for pleasure. And of course because people like that support such obscenities, all of their sycophantic forelock-tuggers follow suit. If only one of them had ever had the guts to stand up and denounce such activities, fox-hunting might have been banned a lot sooner than it was. Of course, even though it's now illegal, that doesn't stop people from doing it - they are, after all, too important to be burdened by having to obey the law of the land.

As you can see, it's a topic that really makes my blood boil!

[Linda]

I couldn't agree more, Pat!  Makes my blood boil, too!