Wild animal frights at night!

[Dennis]

Hello,

The mount was purring along; for most of the night I had been tuning the side by side set up and how now settled down to grab some 5 minute subs of the star field around Pluto.

Suddenly I heard a blood curdling screech and all hell broke loose, followed by an almighty splash in our pool. What the! I flipped my head torch switch to the white LED setting and in my beam, found a possum, doing laps in our pool! It seems he/she had been having a territorial fight and had fallen or jumped out of the tree.

I was stunned. It was a surreal scene as he/she hauled out of the pool via the steps and then climbed the 1.8 metre paling fence to then jump back in the pool as his/her assailant redoubled their attack. I called out to Narelle to bring the bigger torch and as she arrived, we saw the fighting pair sprint along the back of the paling fence, squeeze through the pool fence and take off into the council paddock!

What a night! A neighbour had a couple of large mango trees cut down two days ago, so maybe the displaced possum was looking for a new home!

I’m just glad we don’t have bears and I didn’t know that possums could swim!

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

I wonder if the possum knew either, Dennis, but there's always one way to find out!

We are pretty safe really compared to places OS... no bears, no big cats, etc.

Al.

[Wavytone]

Only the joe blakes looking for somewhere warm to curl up.

[Inmykombi (Geoff)]

Just dont drop those eyepieces when they start screeching again tonight

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Astronomy certainly has it's brisk moments.

[GrahamL]

yes we certainly are lucky with critters down here.. have read the odd post of astronomers in the US mentioning lions bears and guns. Anyone see that animal rescue eposode last week where there bear had got into the guys house , you couldn't of trashed the inside anymore if you tried not to mention bear shat every where.

Down the local soccer field one one night I heard a little shuffle off to the side It was a fox come to check me out , just sat there looking for a few minutes had a scratch and trotted off

[kinetic (Steve)]

LOL Dennis,

reminds me of this incident years ago that I posted in Leon's thread:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...0&postcount=16

Steve

[Ric]

There's nothing like the odd growl or snarl in the darkness to make the old heart skip a beat or two.

[Dennis]

Thanks for sharing my bewildering experience!

I am used to hearing the snarls and aggressive chirps of the flying foxes as they feast on the fruit trees and I live in constant fear of one of them doing a mid air pooh on my sacred Mewlon mirror as it swoops low over the back garden!

Cheers

Dennis

[erick (Eric)]

Remus has mentioned intently peering through the eyepiece in Malaysian countryside to suddenly feel a warm breath on the back of the neck - a quiet, yet interested water buffalo

[mozzie (Peter)]

we have the state forest next to me some 30meters from the pod and you here some strange noises in the early hours the kangaroos frighten you theres dead silence there all of a sudden they bound through you cant get the white light on quick enough to see what the hell is out there always peering over the pod walls to see if any snakes are on the move the give you a good fright to
mozzie

[M54 (Molly)]

I feel sorry for the possums when they are displaced.
A few years ago we had to remove a dead tree that was covered in English Ivy, and we knew there was a possum living in it.

We put up a possum box on an adjacent tree that he used to get to our roof every night on route to the back yard and put an apple in it.

That night we sat and watched at dusk, and sure enough, he investigated it and then moved in.

We had the tree removed and he's been living in the box ever since.

A couple of times we've had tradesmen working in our driveway and he always sticks his head out to watch, which amuses the tradies no end.

A possum box is a good alternative when trees are removed.

[avandonk]

At my place there are a heap of possums. They are so used to me being out a night they sort of ignore me. In the depths of winter I give them left over bread. They are that cheeky now that they line up and take bread from my hands. They are wild animals and do not confuse them with soft furry bunnies.

Bert

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by avandonk

They are wild animals and do not confuse them with soft furry bunnies.
Bert

Hi Bert

Yes – I know only too well from experience! A few years ago we rescued a large, male possum that had suffered some (temporary) injury to his hind quarters and had managed to drag himself onto our patio one very cold July morning.

The poor fella was shivering, either with the cold, shock or both. Anyhow, I put on thick welding gloves and attempted to pick him up by the scruff of the neck. I missed. My thumb ended up in his mouth and although he bit through the thick glove, he only broke my surface skin and didn’t puncture the thumb.

I then grabbed him by his tail and put him in a box with old towels and sheets in which we transported him to the local vet. They fixed him up and a week or so later, returned him to the council paddock behind our house.

Prior to this encounter, being an Englishman, the only animals I had previously handled were as you described, tame bunnies and pussy cats!

Cheers

Dennis