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| The Brush-tailed Possum caught raiding the fig tree |
After the success of catching the cockatoo raiding the chickens' food bins last week, I thought I should try to find out who was raiding the figs and focus a camera-trap on the fig tree.
The figs are the last fruit to ripen in our Canberra garden at the end of summer and we always look forward to opening a nice ripe one for breakfast. But, not this year, some animal has been eating them before we can pick them.
At first I thought it might have been fruit bats as I have seen them on the tree in previous years. Not this time though, the thief was a Brush-tailed Possum. It was a female, probably the one that sleeps in one of our garden nest-boxes, although if it was her, she has parted with her joey. The last time I saw her a week or so ago, she had a large joey (a young marsupial) in tow, still trying to hitch a ride on her back even when it was at least half mum's size.
She will probably have a new tiny joey in her pouch already, so I suppose she will want to add a hint of fig flavour to her milk. Lucky possums.
To watch a clip of the surveillance film, as evidence of the criminal's identity, click here.
We do like the possums, but...... there are times......
