Softly does it
Autumn’s soft release triptych
Because we learn so much from the trail camera footage we place at each soft release site, here, from the middle of winter, is a look at the three soft release groups earlier this year, for those curious and for the Ringtail fans.
Enjoy the arboreal antics!
Bill & Jean
Soft release group I
Batesford, 2025
Harry, Rose, & Constance
Soft release group II
Staughton Vale, 2025
Oti, Toffee, & Marble
Soft release group III
Batesford, 2025
These videos may prove helpful to other wildlife carers who soft release possums and the like. Should you have the means to get your paws upon a night-vision camera for the duration of the soft easement into the wild, we heartily recommend it. With the intention of being as unobtrusive as possible, be sure to have your camera set to an infrared or no-glow setting for nighttime to avoid startling any animals, both inside the enclosure and in the vicinity. The adage, measure twice, cut once, also applies, and it is best to test the location of your camera to ensure the correct position. Strapped to a lean-trunked tree, our early footage of Bill and Jean moves with every gust of wind, and resulted in some arthouse shakes. Strapped to a beautiful, sturdy horizontal bough, our footage of Oti, Toffee, and Marble, whilst inside the enclosure, was at too great a distance and resulted in a small harvest of film, and missed memories.
These videos may also prove helpful to those of you intrigued about the wildlife we share space with, particularly wildlife that keep different sleeping patterns to us. While many of us sleep, our nocturnal wild and furred neighbours are experiencing a whole different umwelt to our own. Seeing how much they return to sup water is a timely reminder of what leaving water out for wildlife looks like, regardless the time of year. A safe, clean, topped-up watering hole is a wonderful aid, and for many of us, an easy way to make a difference, and feel part of a wider conversation with all the beings in our orbit. Providing a water vessel renders you friend-shaped.
These videos allow us to see what we hope but otherwise could never know. We can tell how they are faring by noting how much they’ve eaten and supped, and by what they’ve left behind, but seeing how they move, respond, particularly when the enclosure is open, is truly invaluable. From them we can learn if our chosen sites are successful and what we can do and look for in future release sites to give ‘our’ ringies the best possible chance. Do they love dense, mid canopy near their trailer? A resounding yes. Do they use the nesting boxes and, if so, which ones?
They give us peace of mind, and we can note their patterns (obvious though it may sound, it is important to set the time and date stamp to the correct settings to get the most out of your tree-branch monitoring sessions), from tentative steps to increasingly bold leaps as their familiarity with their new home grows. Depending upon the growth around the site, we secure bridges from nearby fallen branches, so that their are multiple exits from the exposed tin roof of the enclosure. It also allows us to see who else, like a Brushtail or a Krefft’s glider shares the space, who uses the water station on the roof of the enclosure, and more besides. For instance, seeing Oti, Toffee, or was it Marble? scaling the outside corner of the enclosure without mesh with relative ease only to perform the same action on repeat. Seeing the transition of weight in the body, in the moments just before the beautiful high spring, is a quivering highlight we’ll never tire of observing. Such marvellous skill!
In some groups it can be easy to see who is who by size or gender or the length of the their white tail tip, but as the nights’ pass, it is harder for us to tell. Or rather, in our stepping back, we let go of these distinguishing markers. We are looking more broadly. Just to see that they are okay and wild. It is a transition for us all, as new roles form.
To us, though grainy these visuals may be, they are as luminous, brightly coloured and dear as marginalia in a Book of Hours.
We have also purchased a second night vision camera, for rescues and gambols (as opposed to a trail cam), which we trialled on a recent walk home. Upon hearing the sound of Grey-headed flying foxes in a nearby tall flowering gum across from the Edinburgh Gardens, we were able to see what otherwise we could only hear and sense. Listening to where they might be, we scanned the tree. In what to our regular eyes, looking up at a tree at night looks like a dark cloak of canopy-known-by-day, when we looked at the viewfinder of the camera we were able to clearly see two flying foxes. Their eyes were luminous white pebbles, and they were playing in the foliage. You could hear their squarks and ‘cheeky monkey’ chatterings, but now we could literally also see variations of what our mind’s each pictured. We also found two round ringtails in their winter coats, engrossed in their own deep harmonic language, though until we can figure out how to access the files on the card, you will have to picture this with your mind’s eye.
Thank-you to everyone, near, nearer, and far, who came along to Castlemaine Press for our artists’ talk about our work, our collaboration, and how it fits, hand in glove, with our wildlife work, as Tiny but Wild, our home-based wildlife shelter. Our home-based studio rubs alongside our home-based shelter, just as we each finish the other’s sentences. We had a wonderful time nattering away about animal encounters, reawakening reciprocity, Salvaged Relatives, copyright, process, and more besides, oblivious to the clock striking overtime. Thank-you for your donations to Tiny but Wild, your enthusiasm, your ears, the generous roll of paper, and the basket of strawberries and mixed seedlings. (True to all such things, we’ve few photos to share but those snapped in the moments before the on switch, posted above, with the fourth image courtesy of Castlemaine Press.)
Image credit: Detail from [Pontifical in Latin, France, for the Bishop of Mirepoix], Catholic Church, [France ca. 1500-ca. 1520], in the collection of State Library Victoria, p.146.
