Tiny July
Wildlife Care
While it was earlier than we’d planned, and winter, the possum quartet decided it was time to head to the soft-release site. On the calendar, we still had another month, but listening to the possums, they said, nope, it is now.
We’d discovered a couple of tiny punctures appeared on Echo’s tail. As the big boy of the group, it may perhaps have been Periwinkle or Asta who said: get your foot out of my face. We’ll never know for sure, but signs of the beginnings of a skirmish are never to be ignored, and so, larger digs, wilder times are what’s called for, and what we delivered. Before doing so, we weighed them and checked their condition; they were all of an impressive weight, alert, plush, healthy, and, above all, ready.
As we packed their accoutrements, we looked back at earlier footage of the previous quartet when we soft-released Homer, Albertina, Pansy, and Humphrey. The trail cameras revealed the giddy foursome gambolling atop the enclosure. Once the hatch was opened, they, like those before them, adapted with ease and flung themselves, at speed, about the canopy.
Time and possums dance to their own drum! Such footage archived serves to reassure us that they know better than us when they are ready to return.
As hoped, together in the soft-release trailer, Periwinkle, Asta, Gustave and Echo banded together in the face of the new as they read their surrounds. We replaced the existing nesting box inside the trailer with a roomer one, dubbed Versailles, all the better to help their acquaintance with the new environment, their forever home base from which to fan out and thrive.
Into the grandeur, they settled all but immediately. They climbed out of their travel basket, explored their surrounds. In the afternoon light, their eyes glowed as they celebrated with grevillea lollipops on the rooftop of Versailles. Yes, they’re going to be very happy here.
Having since checked the trail cameras flanking the soft-release site, we can see that Periwinkle, Asta, Gustave and Echo are doing more than well, they’re positively excelling. Pinging about the enclosure, they are feasting, and alert, curious and exuberant. They are all but buoyant. They’d decided they were ready ahead of our on-paper schedule, and they are indeed so.
From the security of the trailer, they have spent time learning their home. Time, then, to open the hatch and allow them to thread off, should they choose, into the abundance. Having all come in to care weighing 60+ grams, some five-months ago, they are ready to return to the canopy. As ever, they can dash or take their sweet time finding their bearings. Everything in possum time, always.
We can’t wait to see the footage from the trail cameras dotted about the site. Paws crossed.
Image credit: Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael, c. 1650 – c. 1682, View of Haarlem from the Northwest, with the Bleaching Fields in the Foreground (detail), oil on canvas
