Wednesday 16 January 2013

Update 16th Jan 2013

For a while now, only Kiki, Pinot and Marlon have been visiting.

Kiki 5/1/2013

Marlon has picked up a nasty wound around the eye. The eyeball itself looks alright, but the eye lid is all cut and bruised; it looks like he might have been bitten in the face by another possum.

Marlon after a bit of a fight 16/1/2013

Svejk hasn't been seen for a month. In the past, Svejk has occasionally gone away for a week or so at a time, but his current absence is much longer than usual. It's especially worrying that prior to this, Svejk was visiting every night and had been regularly sleeping in boxes. Svejk was larger than the other males in the area and in good health, so it's highly unlikely he was simply chased away from this desirable neighbourhood. It will be very sad if something has happened to him.

Wesley hasn't been seen since late November and Flea since later October. We're much less worried about these two; Wesley was a visiting male who may have gone back to where he came from and Flea was chased out of the area by Kiki, just as Kiki was chased out by her mother before her.

In more positive news, Kiki has started using box 7 and we've managed to get footage of her latest baby leaving the pouch. The baby is still very tiny and unfurred and its eyes might not even be open yet (it's difficult to tell from the film). This could be the first time it has left the safety of the pouch.

Kiki's baby out of pouch for first time

Kiki rarely sleeps in our boxes and this is the first of her (now eight) babies that we've seen at such a young age. Usually she only brings them in when they're permanently out of her pouch and at the back-riding stage.

The mother and baby ringtail mentioned in the last post have been seen again a couple of times. Usually they are too far away to get a good photo, but I did manage to get this one.

Mother Ringtail 25/12/2012
No signs of any pythons this year despite the hot weather, but a few times recently the possums have been acting very cautiously so there's a good chance they are about somewhere nearby.


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