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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 423546" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Wherever we have people living on the fringes of wild, we get animals and people interacting and sometimes clashing. For example, we live on the edge of the second oldest national park in the world - it's a matter of months younger than Yellowstone, and in fact the land for ours was set aside for recreation unofficially, before Yellowstone was set aside. This place is old. But back then, the idea was to create a sort of English parkland where the gentry could ride to hounds. So they released foxes and deer. And now we have a major garden pest, in the deer. They come right into the town every night, will go into our backyards if we leave gates open. Our local authorities don't like us to have front fences, but if we don't have a fence, we won't have a garden. These rotters will ringbark trees with their antlers. </p><p></p><p>As for the foxes - they steal chickens. I've had to fox-proof our chookhouse. We have other animals, ones that are meant to be here. But then, people in the town have brought in their own carnivorous pets such as dogs and cats. I had an "animal lover" sent to me one day by the park rangers. They told me he had found a baby possum and it seemed to be in a bad way, almost comatose. When the man arrived he told me his cat had brought the creature in and been playing with it. The man went on and on about how wonderful it was to live near wildlife, and was critical of me when he found that I (at the time) worked in medical research where animals were used. But he owned a cat that he let roam wild! Very irresponsible. But about the "baby possum" - it was very lucky. It also was not a baby possum, but a full-grown, very rare, Pygmy Possum. Absolutely beautiful, and very tiny. I opened the box and it was inside, apparently dead. But I knew these creatures and know that they hibernate every night when they sleep. The cat had been playing with a sleepy Pygmy and had got bored with its lack of response! Lucky little crittur. I quickly made up a sugar solution for it (they are nectar feeders, they have a brush tongue like a lot of honeyeater birds) and let it warm up in the palm of my hand, where it fitted neatly. As it warmed up, it got muscle tone back and its prehensile tail began to grip. Its tiny paws went from white to deep pink and it woke up and began to lap the nectar I had made. When it had had its fill, I handed it to the man and told him to take it back to his place, take it out to the bushland behind and KEEP HIS CAT LOCKED UP while he put the Pygmy Possum back up a tree. </p><p>I don't think I got the message to him about his cat, sadly. He moved away a few years later and since then the rangers have reported several local colonies in the vicinity of that man's house, of Pygmy Possums. So some good news - despite the proliferation of cats and dogs, these little darlings are doing well. Maybe it's their habit of hibernation. But not every creature is so lucky.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Pygmy_Possum" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Pygmy_Possum</a></p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 423546, member: 1991"] Wherever we have people living on the fringes of wild, we get animals and people interacting and sometimes clashing. For example, we live on the edge of the second oldest national park in the world - it's a matter of months younger than Yellowstone, and in fact the land for ours was set aside for recreation unofficially, before Yellowstone was set aside. This place is old. But back then, the idea was to create a sort of English parkland where the gentry could ride to hounds. So they released foxes and deer. And now we have a major garden pest, in the deer. They come right into the town every night, will go into our backyards if we leave gates open. Our local authorities don't like us to have front fences, but if we don't have a fence, we won't have a garden. These rotters will ringbark trees with their antlers. As for the foxes - they steal chickens. I've had to fox-proof our chookhouse. We have other animals, ones that are meant to be here. But then, people in the town have brought in their own carnivorous pets such as dogs and cats. I had an "animal lover" sent to me one day by the park rangers. They told me he had found a baby possum and it seemed to be in a bad way, almost comatose. When the man arrived he told me his cat had brought the creature in and been playing with it. The man went on and on about how wonderful it was to live near wildlife, and was critical of me when he found that I (at the time) worked in medical research where animals were used. But he owned a cat that he let roam wild! Very irresponsible. But about the "baby possum" - it was very lucky. It also was not a baby possum, but a full-grown, very rare, Pygmy Possum. Absolutely beautiful, and very tiny. I opened the box and it was inside, apparently dead. But I knew these creatures and know that they hibernate every night when they sleep. The cat had been playing with a sleepy Pygmy and had got bored with its lack of response! Lucky little crittur. I quickly made up a sugar solution for it (they are nectar feeders, they have a brush tongue like a lot of honeyeater birds) and let it warm up in the palm of my hand, where it fitted neatly. As it warmed up, it got muscle tone back and its prehensile tail began to grip. Its tiny paws went from white to deep pink and it woke up and began to lap the nectar I had made. When it had had its fill, I handed it to the man and told him to take it back to his place, take it out to the bushland behind and KEEP HIS CAT LOCKED UP while he put the Pygmy Possum back up a tree. I don't think I got the message to him about his cat, sadly. He moved away a few years later and since then the rangers have reported several local colonies in the vicinity of that man's house, of Pygmy Possums. So some good news - despite the proliferation of cats and dogs, these little darlings are doing well. Maybe it's their habit of hibernation. But not every creature is so lucky. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Pygmy_Possum[/url] Marg [/QUOTE]
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