We were breakfasting in the sunshine on the back verandah this morning, when, much to my surprise, I noticed what looked to be a dead possum in one of the gardens at the base of our house. Closer investigation revealed that the poor poss wasn't quite dead, though as close as you can get to being dead without actually being dead, if that makes sense. So I gently put it into a box with soft sugar cane mulch and let it die. Which it did soon after. The poor thing had either been attacked or it had some kind of mange on its back end as you can just make out in this pic. Animals die. And when you live in the country you see so much more death than you tend to do in the urban environment. We wonder if this was the lemon-skinning possum that had gone through so many of our lemons.
3 comments:
Hi Kev,
nice to have another blogger in my neck of the woods. I'm in Mulvena Rd, Larnook.
A few years ago I also found a dying possum with mange. It was very beaten-up looking with bald patches. The wildlife carer I took it to said the feeble ones get beaten up by the stronger ones in territory wars, and they also catch mange the same way dogs do. Sad to see them like that, isn't it?
All the best,
Joy
Hi Joy,
thanks for your message and for telling me about the possum you had found with mange. Yes, this poor fellow looked in very bad shape. We had only seen the first possum on our property about 4-6 weeks before and I suspect it is probably the same one. Do you know if they are mountain brush tails or common brush tails. I've seen a few killed on Rock Valley and Cawongla roads and they have all been very dark coloured.
I had a bit of a look at your blog - you have some wonderful wildlife photos on there of animals and plants you have seen. The bandy bandy looked amazingly well fed!
My partner, Steve, and I moved up here almost 4 years ago and we are really loving it.
Hi Kev,
thanks for your kind words about my blog.
Possums are quite cryptic (you don't know they're there a lot of the time, being night foragers and all) so you may have more than you think. Now this one has died, you might get a replacement moving into its territory. The really dark ones are mountain brushtails (aka bobucks).
Andrew and I have been in Rock Valley just over 10 years, and we think it's a great place to live, too.
Maybe see you at the anti-CSG thing at the Rock Valley Hall on Saturday?
Post a Comment