Buddy, the Ringtail Possum

by Shelley Clarke

One very windy day in Narooma Helen Azar had a call from her friend to say she discovered a small ringtail possum clinging onto the back of her little dog named Laila!

What a sight! Helen did a fabulous job searching for mumma ringtail, but sadly she couldn’t be found. Helen kept this little male ringtail in care overnight before transporting him to Debbie Ellis the next morning.

Little Buddy is doing well, and is now in a pre-release aviary with Rebecca Ryman.

Thank goodness for gentle dogs like Laila.

NSW Government Backdown

The NSW government has decided not to introduce native forestry legislation that would have made it easier for landholders to remove native forest on their land. The reason is not because the government was suddenly concerned about the environment but because it would not have had the numbers in the upper house of parliament to get it passed.

The bill was opposed in the upper house by Labor, the Greens, Nationals MP Geoff Provest, Liberal MPs Felicity Wilson and Leslie Williams, independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich and Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile.

The controversy over the proposed legislation was dubbed ‘the koala wars’ because koala habitat was threatened by the new legislation. Critics warned the bill would have weakened environmental regulation.

Ref: Alexandra Smith, NSW government forced to pull divisive ‘koala wars’ bill, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November 2022.

Australian Rodents

There are over 60 species of native rodents in Australia that are not found anywhere else in the world. Researchers at ANU think they have all evolved from a pregnant rodent that floated to New Guinea on a piece of driftwood 8.5 million years ago. Rodents then evolved for a few million years in New Guinea before coming to Australia via a land bridge, when sea levels were low, about 5 million years ago.

However, since European colonisation of Australia, 11 of the 60 mainland species of rodent have become extinct, which is the highest rate of any mammals. Remaining species are threatened by predation, land clearing, disease and competition with more recently introduced rodents.

Ref: Emily Roycroft, ‘Impressive rafting skills’: the 8-million-year old origin story of how rodents colonised Australia, The Conversation, 3 September 2022.

Baby Echidna Rescued from Floods

An echidna puggle was found floating in flood waters next to a road near Menindee, NSW by Kevin Staker, a field officer with National Parks. It was about 3 or 4 months old.

Although adult echidnas are good swimmers, this puggle was near exhaustion. It was transported over 100 km to Broken Hill and then even further to Dubbo for specialist care before being released back near Menindee.

Ref: Bill Ormonde, Baby echidna saved from floodwaters in Menindee, outback NSW, ABC News, 22 November 2022.

Wombats Distressed by Floods

Wombats are being displaced by the recent floods. They like building their burrows near rivers as the soil tends to be softer there.

When their burrows are flooded, if they manage to escape without being drowned they often have to move into the territory of other wombats which leads to serious fights.

"Yolandi Vermaak, the founder and president of Wombat Rescue NSW and ACT, has taken calls recently about wombats being seen on tennis courts, in sheds and under cars – a 10 per cent increase on what she usually receives.”

Wombats need their burrows to escape from the summer heat as they don’t sweat and can easily overheat.

Ref: NSW Floods Live Updates, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 November 2022.

River Dams Harm Platypus

The platypus is extinct in some parts of Australia and threatened elsewhere due to bushfires, deforestation, drought, pollution and predators.

Dams on rivers pose another problem for the platypus as they impede its movement and therefore genetic interaction between those above and below the dams.

"This lack of genetic diversity makes these separate populations of platypus increasingly vulnerable to inbreeding depression and loss of adaptive genetic variations. Additionally, it makes it harder for them to recolonize areas where local extinctions have occurred or disperse to areas that have better conditions.

To overcome this problem alternatives to big dams need to be considered, such as off-river storage of water, or providing passages through or around dams.

Ref: Laura Baisas, Dams are hurting this enigmatic Australian species, Popular Science, 3 November 2022.

Intelligent Parrots

The Parrot In The Mirror by Antone Martinho-Truswell, Oxford University Press, 2022, $41.95.

Behavioural ecologist Antone Martinho-Truswell’s book focuses on the behavioural traits shared by humans and birds.

The author believes it is the helplessness of bird and human babies that is behind these shared traits, "encouraging as it does techniques of family interdependence, vocal communication, and increased environmental influence on the development of intelligence… Such factors all start to make us daylit, largely monogamous and song-loving humans look far more birdish than mammal-like."

The book includes anecdotes of bird creativity – "crows in Japan using pedestrian lights to allow cars to crack walnut shells, African grey parrots asking questions in English about their appearance and then understanding the answer at a depth beyond mimicry, cockatoos not only using tools but making them from scratch…"

Ref: Gregory Day, ‘Extraordinary intelligence’: We share more with parrots than you think, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 September 2022.