Mango Dreaming

by Ray Brown

A brushtail possum, dreaming of mango dinners in a corner of the Pickled Octopus kitchen, was aroused from sleep to see two WIRES volunteers hovering nearby with entrapment intent. He was not a happy chappy.

His attempted escape behind the fridge was thwarted by his corpulent mango filled frame and a prodding mop handle eventually drove him back into Shelley Clarke's waiting arms. A brief but brisk encounter followed with enraged screams (from the possum, I think) before he was secured in the waiting rescue basket.

The possum was relocated to a tree with ocean views at Lavender Bay where he was probably planning his next meal at the Pickled Octopus. Or maybe he was writing a review for the Tuross Possum Times.

Dead Bats for Sale

National Geographic have revealed the shocking news that dead bats and their parts are being sold on Ebay and Etsy for wall decorations or as clothing accessories. For example, dead bats preserved with outstretched wings attached to hair barrettes are in demand online. There are also bat hats and garter belts. Sellers seem to be mainly based in the US.

Painted woolly bats, found across Asia, are particularly popular because of their bright orange and black colouring but they are listed as “near threatened”.

"A report in 2021 in Frontiers in Veterinary Science tallied 237 bat listings on eBay between May 11 and May 25, 2020 (totaling 4,467 specimens), with sellers in Australia, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. Some posts included up to 50 bats."

Ref: Dina Fine Maron, Etsy and eBay are selling dead bats—and scientists are disturbed, National Geographic, 9 February 2023.

Snapper Island Penguins Thriving

Little penguins on Snapper Island, a small island out from Batemans Bay, are thriving even though other penguin colonies on NSW’s coastline are not. Researchers and citizen scientists camped out on the island to count them.

The success of the colony on the island has been helped because the penguin habitats there have been restored (by removing weeds and replanting native vegetation) and artificial burrows installed (see August 2022 issue of this newsletter).

Another reason for its success is that the island is a no-landing site so the penguins are undisturbed by people and their pets.

Ref: Fatima Olumee, Researchers, citizen scientists count little penguins in 'thriving' Snapper Island colony, ABC South East NSW News, 4 October 2022.

“Devil Bird” Moving South

It seems that the koel is moving south as a result of climate change.

The koel, which has been referred to as the devil bird because of its annoying late-night mating call, is becoming more commonly seen and heard in Melbourne, when once this was rare.

Koels migrate from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to Australia, mainly to Queensland and NSW, in September/October to mate. They then lay their eggs in the nests of other species before returning to their northern bases.

Ref: Henry Belot, Unusual sightings of ‘devil bird’ across Melbourne raise migration mysteries for researchers, The Guardian, 26 January 2023.

Possums Feast on Dead Kangaroos

During winter, brushtail possums readily scavenge dead animals in Kosciusko National Park.

Researchers put out dead kangaroos and monitored the animals that came to eat them using remote cameras.

"Across 745,599 remote camera images, the scavenger species we recorded were spotted-tail quolls, feral cats, dingoes, pied currawongs, wedge-tailed eagles, brushtail possums, ravens, red foxes, and feral pigs. Of the scavenging we recorded, 88% was done by brushtail possums and ravens.”

Brushtail possums accounted for 81% of the recorded scavenging during the winter when their normal food sources— leaves, flowers, fruit and insects—were scarce.

Ref: James Vandersteen and Thomas Newsome, Dead kangaroos make a surprising feast for possums in the Australian Alps, The Conversation, 17 February 2023.

Maudy, the Galah

Maudy, a galah, was taken from the wild as a chick and spent 8 years in a cage. She was subsequently cared for by Rachel McInnes for a year or so with the aim of rewilding her. She's been soft-released at Potato Point and interacts with the local flock.

She still visits Rachel and comes to her call. So when Maudy was blown by strong winds to Tuross Head and a local posted a picture of her (as a lost pet) on the Tuross Head Community Notice Board, Rachel was able to find her and return her to her favourite tree in Rachel’s backyard.