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Marg...I dont suppose you want to ship me
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 301510" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>The legality issue - I need to check, but to the best of my knowledge, they are not allowed out of Australia unless to zoos by previous and detailed bureuacratic arrangement. So the smuggling trade is huge. Since so much of our airport security is now looking at what comes IN to the country, we're far less vigilant about what goes out.</p><p></p><p>You might think - no big deal, tosmuggle animals or birds out. But smugglers getsuch a huge payoff for these animals (because of the resultant rarity factor) that they allow for a lot of deaths in transit. They are shipped secretly, sedated, in specially made packages generally in the hold luggage. It's been estimated that about 90&#37; die.</p><p></p><p>That's why I strongly beleive we should allow legitimate export, to drop the bottom out of the smuggling trade. They would still be capturing wild creatures but in a controlled way with an eye to the numbers in tat area, and you would have a 90% survival rate instead of a 90% mortality rate. Transport would be more humane, also.</p><p></p><p>Now, we don't have diseases like rabies here, so creatures arriving from Australia would not be a quarantine issue (except our bats - we have a disease called Lyssa virus which is potentially fatal). I don't know if our marsupials are capable of contracting rabies or similar diseases. In Australia they occupy a similar ecological niche to squirrels orchipmunks. So whatever diseases squirrels or chipmunks can get, I would check to see if our gliders can get. But the thing is - these are marsupials. They are actually a lot more different to squirrels, than they are similar. More different than they seem. I'm not certian, but I think our marsupials tend to be more short-lived as individuals, than placentals.</p><p></p><p>Breeding them is tricky. You often need multiple pairs, often of different species. I have a funny story to tell about that (another time). If you had a tape-recording of mating calls plus the exact right environmental conditions, you could get some surprise breeding success.</p><p></p><p>If they are tame, they are absolutely darling to handle. It should happily ride around on your shoulder especially if you have bribes of fruit. Find out if tey can eat dried fruit pieces (like the sort you can feed parrots). That make great training tools.</p><p></p><p>I was raising a Brushtail Possum some years ago, it was an orphan which was to be released back into the wild when I was done. I wore bib and brace overalls and the possum rode around either tucked inside the bib of my overalls, or on my shoulder. Sometimes on my head (if a dog went past and it panicked). I had a pocket of pelletised chicken feed and I would hand it a pellet from time to time. Tucked in the bib, sometimes a little hand would reach out asking for a pellet.</p><p>But gliders are much more obligate fruit eaters, unlike the omnivorous possum.</p><p></p><p>Enjoy your darling.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 301510, member: 1991"] The legality issue - I need to check, but to the best of my knowledge, they are not allowed out of Australia unless to zoos by previous and detailed bureuacratic arrangement. So the smuggling trade is huge. Since so much of our airport security is now looking at what comes IN to the country, we're far less vigilant about what goes out. You might think - no big deal, tosmuggle animals or birds out. But smugglers getsuch a huge payoff for these animals (because of the resultant rarity factor) that they allow for a lot of deaths in transit. They are shipped secretly, sedated, in specially made packages generally in the hold luggage. It's been estimated that about 90% die. That's why I strongly beleive we should allow legitimate export, to drop the bottom out of the smuggling trade. They would still be capturing wild creatures but in a controlled way with an eye to the numbers in tat area, and you would have a 90% survival rate instead of a 90% mortality rate. Transport would be more humane, also. Now, we don't have diseases like rabies here, so creatures arriving from Australia would not be a quarantine issue (except our bats - we have a disease called Lyssa virus which is potentially fatal). I don't know if our marsupials are capable of contracting rabies or similar diseases. In Australia they occupy a similar ecological niche to squirrels orchipmunks. So whatever diseases squirrels or chipmunks can get, I would check to see if our gliders can get. But the thing is - these are marsupials. They are actually a lot more different to squirrels, than they are similar. More different than they seem. I'm not certian, but I think our marsupials tend to be more short-lived as individuals, than placentals. Breeding them is tricky. You often need multiple pairs, often of different species. I have a funny story to tell about that (another time). If you had a tape-recording of mating calls plus the exact right environmental conditions, you could get some surprise breeding success. If they are tame, they are absolutely darling to handle. It should happily ride around on your shoulder especially if you have bribes of fruit. Find out if tey can eat dried fruit pieces (like the sort you can feed parrots). That make great training tools. I was raising a Brushtail Possum some years ago, it was an orphan which was to be released back into the wild when I was done. I wore bib and brace overalls and the possum rode around either tucked inside the bib of my overalls, or on my shoulder. Sometimes on my head (if a dog went past and it panicked). I had a pocket of pelletised chicken feed and I would hand it a pellet from time to time. Tucked in the bib, sometimes a little hand would reach out asking for a pellet. But gliders are much more obligate fruit eaters, unlike the omnivorous possum. Enjoy your darling. Marg [/QUOTE]
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