Update 20th Apr 2017

I'll start with a picture of Raffi.

Raffi - 14^th Apr 2017

Raffi is a cute little possum and normally a young brushtail like him would have featured more prominently on this blog. Unfortunately he's been overshadowed by the recent ringtail drama.

Raffi usually sleeps in Box 7 with Sasha, although today he slept in the garage door, while Sasha was in Box 4.

Raffi after emerging from the garage door - 20^th Apr 2017

Here's a photo of Sasha, who also seems to miss out on her fair share of photos.

Sasha - 14^th Apr 2017

Niva is growing up but still very small. She seems to be flourishing, despite the loss of her mother.

Niva - 16^th Apr 2017 [Photo by Xesce]

Both Wasabi and Koji have been taking turns looking after her. By the way, I am not 100% sure that Niva is a girl. It's hard to tell at the moment because everything is covered up with fur, so I'm reserving judgement for a while.

Niva (left) and Koji (right)  - 16^th Apr 2017

Wasabi (left) and Niva (right) - 17^th Apr 2017

Zoë has been seen around, but has kept away from the humans. Recently, it seemed as if Wasabi was trying to take her out to dinner at the Possum TV restaurant, but she was bit nervous and remained further back in the trees.

Zoë - 18^th Apr 2017

The social structure of the ringtails is interesting. At the moment:

    Wasabi looks after Niva.

    Koji also looks after Niva.

    But Wasabi often chases off Koji when he sees him.

    Wasabi is friendly with Zoë.

    But Zoë chases off Niva.

This is more complex than with brushtails who almost always simply chase off any other possum on sight - then again, I'm just an ignorant human and they might well have elaborate rules I don't know anything about.

Recently, Wasabi was seen sleeping by himself in a tree in daylight. He wasn't particularly exposed and had avoided the attention of birds, who tend to mob possums caught out in the daylight, but it was a little surprising because there were several ringtail dreys nearby in the trees.

Wasabi in daylight - 16^th Apr 2017

He visited the house as soon as it became dark and was otherwise behaving normally, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

There have been Eastern Water Dragons in the yard for a long time, but it's only recently we've noticed one sleeping in trees. This water dragon has been seen a few times and has been named Elvis.

Here is Elvis after having been rudely awakened in the middle of the night by Zoë trampling him when running away after having been spooked.

Elvis the Water Dragon - 9^th Apr 2017

I don't have any recent photos of them, but the two Brush Turkey chicks are still around. They have been named Merlin and Byron.

Finally (and I wanted to leave this to last due to the ugly photos), Farley's neck wound, mentioned in the last blog post, seemed to be getting worse rather than better, and he is now being treated with Ceclor.

My thanks go out Dr Jim Pollock for prescribing and supplying this medicine.

Farley's neck wound - 10^th Apr 2017

Photo above zoomed in for the full effect

This might look like a simple scab, but it's the early stages of exudative dermatitis, which is a horrible affliction that looks like leprosy and usually leads to a slow and unpleasant demise of the possum.

The other possums are, unfortunately, not giving Farley any consideration for his injuries. One of the box cameras recently caught Sasha attacking Farley and driving him out of a nestbox.

Farley being attacked by Sasha in Box 3 - 18^th April 2017