The Biota of Lake Tyers
Mammals - Marsupials - Ringtails
Our Ringtail Possums
we found a whole
family!!!! Two adults and two young!! We saw them clamber
out later in the night and go off foraging for leaves and flowers. They
just groomed themselves on the deck first and headed off. They
hardly moved when I took the cover off so they were easy to
photograph!!! I was really amazed, like REALLY amazed. Scientific name is Pseudocheirus peregrinus
We
have seen Ringtails make leaf nests in the tops of trees on our
westerly neighbours' adjacent vacant, but tree'd, block. We
have observed them on summer evenings clambering around and
calling each other in the tree tops. So we
probably have some relatives of them in our BBQ base. It is interesting
that
their nest is on our 2nd floor decking here, and yet even though we
have 2 cats (sorreeey) with the entrance easily accessible to
them, the cats give the possums a wide berth, only going near for a
quick
sniff from time to time. We keep a strict curfew on the cats after
about 5-6pm, so the cats not out when the possums would be most
vunerable ie leaving from/returning to their stainless steel condo' Here is a link provided by the Australian Museum to an excellent possum site.
POSTSCRIPT:
The other morning I was wanting to make a call on the mobile and the air was still and calm and I thought I will sit out on the deck in full view of the Nowa Nowa telephone tower and guarantee good reception. My dear wife, Liz had put our deck chairs out and I took a liking to the one closest to Daff and Beck's. It looked a bit rumpled and not quite open enough to just drop into, so I thought I had better get the cloth covers straightened before I drop from a great height into a relaxed and fuzzy outlook of our great view. As I rearranged the cover I felt something squirm and before I knew it a Ringtail possum had revealed itself, hiding under the covers but on the seat, just about where I was about to plonk my massive weight. Even though I then left it alone, I had obviously rattled the Ringtail and it appeared at the bottom of the chair and on the decking. It has a very primitive idea of hiding. It appears that if the possum can't see anyone else, then they can't see the possum. However the following picture proves this wrong :-)
The dear little thing stayed this way for 20mins or so.
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In the summer of 2012 a possum had nested in the base of our
pedestal BBQ with leaves from a Grevillea sp. nearby, Later in the year I decided to make it more habitable,
and added a plastic flap to it. We had some human visitors recently so we opened it up to show off our marsupial resident, and also because I wanted a photo of him (her?). So when we got the BBQ out removed the flap, (and yes we use it with the possums in the bottom - it does not heat up, in fact the gas bottle will get quite cool with the escaping gas) |
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POSTSCRIPT:
The other morning I was wanting to make a call on the mobile and the air was still and calm and I thought I will sit out on the deck in full view of the Nowa Nowa telephone tower and guarantee good reception. My dear wife, Liz had put our deck chairs out and I took a liking to the one closest to Daff and Beck's. It looked a bit rumpled and not quite open enough to just drop into, so I thought I had better get the cloth covers straightened before I drop from a great height into a relaxed and fuzzy outlook of our great view. As I rearranged the cover I felt something squirm and before I knew it a Ringtail possum had revealed itself, hiding under the covers but on the seat, just about where I was about to plonk my massive weight. Even though I then left it alone, I had obviously rattled the Ringtail and it appeared at the bottom of the chair and on the decking. It has a very primitive idea of hiding. It appears that if the possum can't see anyone else, then they can't see the possum. However the following picture proves this wrong :-)
The dear little thing stayed this way for 20mins or so.