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."