The Mystery of The Orange Powder

Recently, Comet appeared with orange powder on his nose.

Comet with the mystery orange powder on his nose - 25^th Dec 2014

The presence of this orange powder is an ongoing minor mystery that occurs pretty much every December (but no other time of year).

Update 19th December 2012

[Sorry that this post if out of order. I accidentally clicked the wrong place and deleted the original and there doesn't seem to be any way to get it back without re-posting it.]

There haven't been any updates for a while because I've been away for work.

Since my last post, only Kiki, Svejk and Pinot have been visiting with any regularity and now even Svejk hasn't been seen for several days. Here are some recent photos of the three:

Kiki 11/12/2012  [Photo by Xesce]

Update 23rd November 2012

Kiki, Svejk, Wesley, Pinot and Marlon have all been visiting (in roughly that order of frequency).

A new male ringtail has been seen around. He looks like Wasabi - who is quite possibly his father - but is smaller (smaller than he looks in the photo) and has some nicks out of his ears. He might be one of the babies seen in September of this year. We have called him Tabasco. Hopefully, like Wasabi, he will prove to be distasteful to pythons.

Tabasco 7/11/2012

Wasabi himself hasn't visited for a while, however there have been ringtails seen in the trees, and it's possible he's about, but just not visiting.

Toe-biting Possums

Many brushtail possums have a toe-biting habit. When I was on holidays in Tasmania a few years ago, one of the local possums (named Rufus) greeted me in the following way:

Rufus toe-biting - Cradle Mountain, Tasmania 8/9/2008

I haven't worked out what the motivation for this is.

The majority will advance menacingly towards a person's foot, lightly nip at the big toe then run away. Some, however, will merely sniff at a toe. Very few will bite hard. Some possums never toe-bite at all. Ginger, our first possum, was like this. She would occasionally climb a person's leg, but never toe-bite.

Update 30th Oct 2012

We haven't had a photo of Pinot in a while, so here's one of him in a characteristic pose on the balcony rail.

Pinot 24/10/2012

Some of the possums are now visiting much less often than before. For a while, only Kiki, Svejk and Wesley were visiting and we thought that the others may have left the area, however all of the remaining possums (Marlon, Pinot, Flea and Wasabi) have since shown themselves. No pythons have been seen in over a month.

Possum Status Update 28th Sept 2012

More pythons. This time a 2 m long one (that is to say, half way between Morlock and Grendel in size) descended through the trees in the possum feeding area.

Here's Kiki glaring at it with bared teeth.

Kiki on guard against the latest python 23/9/2012

Possum Status Update 16th Sept 2012

Still no sign of Nosferatu. At this stage we're assuming he has met with some accident; either a python or one of the other many hazards a possum has to put up with.

Another new male possum has been seen in the area. It's possible that this possum is Dexter, who visited very briefly in May last year.

Unknown Brushtail (Possibly Dexter) 12/9/2012 [Photo by Xesce]

Possum Status Update 8th Sept 2012

Over the last couple of days the weather has warmed up considerably and, on cue, the pythons have been swarming all over the place. At dusk on 6/9/2012 a large python (quite probably Grendel) was stretched out on the balcony rail where the possums come. The following day, the python I had photographed on the roof on 22/4/2012 (see the Python TV post) was seen in the tree next to the balcony rail. I have named this second python Morlock. Subsequently that same night another smaller python (about 1 m long and very thin) also appeared in the same tree.

Kiki was lower down in the tree when this last python appeared, and here's a photo of her reaction to it. She glared at it for a long time with her teeth bared like this. I've never seen a possum do this before; their usual defensive pose is with mouth open, making vocal threats, and with one or both hands raised with claws outstretched. I'm thinking that Kiki is not making a threatening gesture as such, but is simply readying her teeth for biting purposes. Unlike when she saw Grendel, she wasn't nervous and shying at sudden movements, but instead looked like she was going to charge at the python and attack it.

An angry Kiki, ready to attack a carpet python 7/9/2012

Possum status update 7th August 2012

There haven't been many photos of Svejk in this blog so far, so here's a recent one of him exploring the house.

Svejk 4/8/2012 [Photo by Xesce]

All of the regular possums are still visiting. Wesley was absent for over a week and we thought he might have left the area, but he returned last night.

Possum status update 15th July 2012

All of the possums are still around and in good health. Marlon (pictured below) hasn't visited for a while but has been seen sleeping in nestboxes.

Marlon 5/7/2012 [photo by Xesce]

Possum status update 16th June 2012

I've been away from home for work and this blog has been neglected for a while. This neglect is probably going to continue over the next month or two, but hopefully I can squeeze in updates like this one every now and then.

Kiki, Flea, Marlon, Pinot, Svejk and Wasabi are all still visiting regularly, and have recently been joined by a new male possum who we have named Wesley.

Wesley enjoying an apple core [photo by Xesce]

Possum status update 20th May 2012

Kiki, Flea, Marlon, Pinot, Svejk and Wasabi are all still visiting and have been hanging around the house for longer periods than usual. Possibly the pythons (which haven't been seen for nearly a month) have moved somewhere else, or possibly there's less natural food around in the colder weather.

Pinot is no longer nervous around the humans and is becoming quite bold.

Flea is learning her place in the possum hierarchy; last night she hissed at and chased off Pinot.

Here's a photo of her glaring at him from the balcony rail.

Pinot (background) and Flea (foreground)

One piece of bad news is that Flea looks like she has got exudative dermatitis. She has scabbing around both eyes, with a little on the sides of her mouth and also in her left ear.

Kiki

Since it's Mother's Day, I thought I'd write about Kiki. Kiki is the dominant female brushtail in the area (i.e. the Top Possum, because the females are always higher in the pecking order than the males).

Kiki is around four years old and has had six babies, which makes her the most successful mother brushtail we've seen so far.

Here's a recent photo:

Kiki (right) and Flea (left)

Flat Stanley visits the Possums

In March we had a visit from Flat Stanley who came all the way from Canada. The possums were all eager to meet him.

Flat Stanley meets Flea

Possum status update 5th May 2012

No big changes in the possum world. The pythons haven't been sighted again, but the possums are still visiting less often than before. This could be because there has been quite a bit of rain, which the possums never like, but it could also be that the pythons are still lurking somewhere out of sight.

Some time ago Svejk had a very small infection (smaller than the one Marlon had) in the corner of his mouth, but this went away on its own and he now appears to be in perfect health.

Flea now visits much less often than before. Here's a recent photo. I tried to capture how fluffy her tail is, but I don't think I've done a very good job; in person it looks much more impressive.

Flea 29/4/2012

As an aside: I'm not sure why brushtails have such amazingly bushy tails when ringtails can get away with tails that are almost bald. Brushtails often use their tails as pillows when sleeping, which must be very soft and warm, but I can't believe it's just about warmth because both types of possum live equally well in both hot and cold climates. Maybe it's a way of advertising their reproductive fitness: "Look at how plump and luxuriant my tail is; I must clearly be a very healthy and successful possum to grow such a tail."

Introducing Possum TV

Australia is home to some of some pretty amazing wildlife. I think it's a sad thing that most Australians remain ignorant about the animals that (quite literally) live in their own backyards. It's sad not only for the sake of the wildlife, which often gets treated with callous indifference as a result, but also sad because people are missing out on so much.

Not only are the animals incredibly cute, but they're also more interesting than you might imagine. I have been following the lives of the local possums since 2005 and there are still unusual things happening all of the time. As an example of this, a sugar glider visited while I was writing this post. This is the first sugar glider I've seen in the area since 2010.

Sugar Glider looking on cautiously

Anyway, I'll start this blog off with a brief introduction to the possums currently in the area. I'll try to fill in the back-story later, but for the moment you can find more information on the Possum TV Live site if you're interested.

Kiki

Kiki is the dominant female of the area. She has had six babies so far, with a seventh (probably) in the pouch.  Kiki is missing the middle toe on her front left foot.

Flea

Flea is Kiki's daughter. Flea is a very athletic little possum. She is still on friendly terms with her mother. The pronounced white tip on her tail is uncommon in this area.

Svejk

Svejk is the dominant male of the area. Although now over five years old (middle-aged for a possum), he's in very good condition.

Marlon

Marlon is a marauding male visiting the area. He may be related to Svejk.

Unknown Male Possum (maybe Piranha)

This possum has been sleeping in Box 2 recently. He hasn't come near enough to be unidentified yet. He could be Piranha (one of Kiki's babies) come back for a visit.

Wasabi

Wasabi is a young male ringtail. He was lucky to escape the clutches of a carpet python which ate has mother, and probably also sister, earlier this year. He is less shy than most ringtails and has visited several times over the past few days.