Greetings All,
I agree that this is a good forum to discuss this issue and those who are
not interested can hit the delete button.
My experience from spotlighting in the one area very frequently is that
dumped male possums never survive but females may do so at the edges of
suitable territory. The reason I am able to come to this conclusion is that
we have two different subspecies of Brushtail here with different colours
and skull shape.
Bill, I put put up the nest box first. If one can throw some rags into where
the possum sleeps or wipe up some urine with it and then add the rag to the
box that will speed up use of the box.
Not all suitable hollows or dens are used every night in the forests around
here. While urban Brushtails may have high site fidelity that is not the
case of rainforest possums. Even in the city you may find that while you
have possums every night they may not be the same ones. It is also very
easy to miss accounting for the nights when you do not have possums. Absence
is not something most people register instinctively except for the
necessities of life and whisky. (oops, tautology)
I don't think that the lady deserves a medal. It would have been kinder to
euthanize it unless she had recently created suitable habitat where the
animal was being released.
Regards,
Alan
Indeed possums aren't birds but it is certainly NOT a bad example to
discuss this here. I am often shocked how ignorant birders are when it
comes to other creatures.
By the way, the best 'birds' of the last two SOSSA pelagics I posted
yesterday were mammals!
Nikolas
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