Saturday 17 June 2017

Update 17th June 2017

There has been a shortage of possums recently.

Raffi disappeared a couple of weeks ago, soon after being chased around the garden by Marlowe. Immediately after the chase, he turned up at the house uninjured and in good spirits, but has not been seen since then.

Raffi - 1st June 2017 [Photo by Xesce]


A possum of Raffi's age would not normally be chased off permanently for another couple of months.

Farley, Wasabi and Niva have not been seen either.

It's quite possible all of these possums are OK. A young possum like Raffi would be quite likely to be exploring new areas at the moment. It's possible he's found a new sleeping place away from the house and hasn't been visiting due to recent rainy weather. Farley could have swapped territories with Marlowe. Wasabi often leaves for months at a time and returns when least expected, and he could well have taken Niva with him; when last seen, Wasabi had been looking after Niva.

So everyone might well be fine, but of course there are dangers out there and you never know. This is an unfortunate aspect of interacting with possums - but there's no use worrying, or you'd just be worrying all the time.

The only possums currently visiting are Sasha, who has a visible bulge in her pouch, and Koji. Both are in extremely good condition, with no pluckings or other injuries.

Koji - 29th May 2017 [Photo by Xesce]

Marlowe is often seen sleeping in the boxes and once or twice has been seen in the back yard, but has not yet come close enough to be photographed.

Zoƫ has also been seen occasionally. A few days ago, she was seen voraciously eating the leaves of a camphor laurel (I don't know why a possum would do this with a garden full of other plants to choose from) and chased off Koji when he approached her.

The three brush turkeys; Gatsby, Merlin and Byron are still around. Gatsby seems to still be maintaining his mound, so possibly we'll see more brush turkey chicks next summer.

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