This is our possum box which I had installed in one of our front trees when we moved into this house. I love possums. I am amazed by their intelligence and ability to adapt to what for them, is usually a very hostile urban environment.What I don't love are the numnuts who think they have no right to exist in urban territory and keep ripping down their habitat and then complain because they eat their precious gardens.
If we didn't razor blocks of land and get rid of all hints of native foliage, perhaps the possums wouldn't be driven to eating the roses.
There are reports that in parts of my region - which used to be famous for its bushy streets - possums are starving because developers have gotten away with taking out so many trees.
So to all those who complain about them, I say, go away and plant a banksia tree!
I put this box in because when we moved in, we had a family of ringtail possums (for overseas readers, these are the smaller of the possum breed) living in the roof and they were making a wee bit of noise and were a trifle smelly and I was not enjoying their 4am wakeup call. So I got in an expert who gently lured them out of my roof over a series of nights with food and successfully relocated them to this possum box.
Tucked away in this box - we checked again on the weekend - are two ringtails who curl up and sleep the day away in there. They have made it most cosy, filling it with leaves to keep warm.
Every evening they wake and then take a walk along my side fence to feed on the trees in the backyard. It's a fine balance of nature and urban life and a much better lesson to teach kids than the alternative - eradicate all remnants of nature.
And don't even get me started on the mass slaugter of kangaroos in the name of food, sport and 'management' of numbers.
2 comments:
Well said Kylie.
We have a possum in one of our trees that has a nest it has built itself. It is much deeper than a bird's nest, like a vase shape, and during the day you can often see the possums tail hanging out the top.
We have possums and dogs living on our property and whilst they watch one another with great interest we have no problems.I dont mind the possums eating any of the foliage because there is always more growing .The same goes for all the native birds that come to visit the garden:parrots ,kookaburras,owls,
rosellas and many others I cant identify.But we feel very fortunate to live in such a wonderful alive environment.And of course we would never use any poisons on our garden.Weeds simply get pulled out.
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