Crikey Leaves Home - and Returns

On Christmas night we decided the time had come to allow Crikey (the Short-eared Brushtail Possum - often called a Mountain Brushtail) to have his freedom. He had been reared by a wildlife carer from the stage when he was hairless and helpless, and we had now had him in a cage on our place for over a week, to acclimatise to the new surroundings.

He was showing many signs of being “at home”, and was spending a lot of time at night pacing the cage - suggesting that he was now finding it too small.

Two “bridges” made from dead branches were secured from the open door of the cage to nearby trees, and before the last of these had been tied in place Crikey was trying out the first one. He quickly made it to the tree and climbed confidently to the first branch, less than two metres above our heads. This looked so thin and bent so alarmingly as he put his full weight onto it that I said to him “You haven’t done this before, have you?” At the sound of my voice he let go with both front paws and dropped his head downward to look at me, casually looping his tail over the branch.

After giving me a pitying glance he arched back up the branch, but now pointed toward the trunk, and climbed quickly back there and upward.

We left him to it, thinking that he clearly knew what he was doing.

Later that night Hanneke and I went back to look for him, and found him in a tree only a few metres from where he had been before. When he saw us he came down the trunk and reached out toward my shoulder. When I moved toward him he climbed onto my back and across my shoulders, then started running his claws through my hair and examining me with his nose. When he tried a gentle experimental (I hoped) nibble on my ear I put my hands over both ears and asked Hanneke to get him off. Then he found the strap of my headlamp and started pulling it backward and putting his nose in between it and my head. It felt as if he was getting aggressive with it (I couldn’t see any of this, but could feel the force he was using on the strap), and we quickly moved him from my back to the cage.

In the morning he was gone.

The next night Hanneke and I went out looking for him and calling his name, but there was no sign of him. We figured that he had gone back to the “wild”, but were anxious that he might not have found enough food, or even might not have known what to eat, given that he had never been introduced to “bush tucker” by an adult possum.

The following night there was similarly no sign of him, so we resigned ourselves to not seeing him again. However, just after we went to bed there was a clattering and scrambling on the roof and the sound of claws slipping on the iron. When we shone the torch up there a small nose poked over the guttering, followed by some creamy fur and brown eyes. Crikey was back. Worried that he might fall, we got out the ladder and I climbed up - as I came level with the roof Crikey stretched out and climbed onto my shoulders, where he rode all the way back to his cage.

After putting him into the cage and cutting him a large bouquet of different leaves we went back to bed and a sound sleep until 2.45am when the sound of what seemed to be an army of possums having an olympic sprint meeting on the roof woke us. Crikey was back yet again. This time we resolved to just let him find his own way down, worried that it was all a ploy to get another dose of human company, something that he clearly loves. What seemed like hours later the clattering and thumping ceased and we finally got back to sleep. A lot like having teenage kids who had friends over for a noisy party - hard to take, but preferable to not knowing where they are and what they are doing.

In the morning Crikey was back sleeping in the nest box in his cage, and raised a cranky, sleepy face to me when I moved the leaves aside to see how he was doing.

Who knows what the next few nights will bring.

Visit to Peter and Wendy's new place - Chillingham

Went with Liz to visit Peter and Wendy at their new rainforest block. Stayed for a couple of nights in their new shed.

Impressive shed, and very very impressive view and rainforest.




They have their new solar power system in place - what luxury to have all that power!!



Some amazing plants, fungi, and birds in the rainforest.

Christmas Day 2007

At home on the hill with Liz and Hanneke. Cool day, cloudy.

Feels a bit like the holiday at Byron Bay [see the pic] all together and very relaxed.

Wonderful to have Liz here, but sad that she will soon be so far away. Good to know that we will have blogs to help bridge the gap. This posting is really a test to see how it all works.