I noticed a curious thing happening with our rubbish bins. First it was just that the lid was open when I was sure I’d shut it. Then I started to see bits of rubbish appearing on the ground. Keen to figure out what was happening, I set up the remote camera to monitor the bins. It didn’t take too long before the rubbish thief (or thieves) revealed themselves!
Felicity Williams
Grey Currawong (Strepera versicolor)
In a 2019/20 survey of Sydney residents from 401 suburbs, 15% reported protecting their bins from sulphur-crested cockatoos. Researchers studying bin-opening behaviour describe it as an “innovation arms race” between humans and birds. People have tried everything, from placing rocks on lids to using rubber snakes as a scare tactic. The cockatoos eventually find a way around these measures, leading humans to adopt more permanent protection methods, like taping bottles filled with water to their bin lids. Interestingly, both cockatoos and humans have been shown to learn these behaviours from their peers. Authors of a 2021 article in Science reported that cockatoos and the New Zealand kea were the only species known to open wheelie bins. These photos may well provide the first evidence of another species, the Tasmanian grey currawong, engaging in such behaviour.
Scrat is alive and well
This strange creature appeared on the screen. I could not comprehend it. What was Scrat, the squirrel from Ice Age, the movie, doing in our backyard! My wife said, “It looks like he’s had an electric shock and his tail split in half”. Of course, we found out later this was a bettong carrying nesting material with its tail.
Leigh Wasserfall
Eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi)
Eastern bettongs sadly went extinct on mainland Australia in the 1920s, but a few Tasmanian individuals have since been reintroduced to a predator-proof sanctuary in Canberra. Bettongs have prehensile tails they use to carry bundles of grass to build nests for sleeping during the day. These nests are carefully woven, about 30 cm long, and are typically placed in shallow depressions dug by the animal. They are well camouflaged among Poa and Lomandra longifolia grasses, often revealing their presence only when a bettong bursts out unexpectedly. Bettongs may have multiple nests to use as safe havens in case they need to escape predators. Mothers, their young, and occasionally unrelated bettongs will share a nest. Young bettongs can be born at any time of the year, leave their mothers after about six months, and typically live for three to five years. When stressed or pursued by predators, mother bettongs sometimes “throw” larger pouch young, a behaviour that may help them escape danger.
Underwood the “boar”
It’s always sad to capture feral cats on the trail cam…. but it sure was a shock when I saw the feral pig. I first saw him (not really sure if it’s male or female but I’ll go with “him” for now) while walking my dog in the early morning before work and he sure scared the bejeebers out of me. I made contact with everyone in the street and no one knew anything about this pig. Since then, the trail cam has captured him a couple of times, just popping up for a look at the house.
Hannah Bowling
Pig (Sus scrofa domesticus)
In 2008, it was estimated that around 3.2 million feral pigs were distributed across 45% of Australia. On the mainland of Tasmania, feral pigs have only formed occasional, localised, and temporary populations due to accidental releases. However, sealers and other mariners deliberately released pigs on Flinders Island in the 1800s. Feral pigs have a significant capacity to expand their range in Australia, including Tasmania. They occupy diverse habitats, are generalist foragers, have high fecundity, and can alter the environment to suit their needs. Listed as a Key Threatening Process under Federal environment legislation, feral pigs impact native animals through predation, habitat degradation, competition, and disease transmission. They prey on a variety of native species, from turtles to birds, and degrade habitats by rooting through soil. Despite their known impacts, the true extent of their effect on native environments is poorly understood. Any pigs at large on mainland Tasmania are considered domestic stock by Natural Resources and Environment.
Possum trio
Brushtail possums are very interested in camera traps, so that’s all I expected to capture when I pointed a camera along this log. Imagine my surprise when the camera also caught our first ringtail and first pygmy possum!
Larena Woodmore
Possums (T. vulpecula, P. peregrinus & Cercartetus sp.)
Let’s focus on Tasmania’s two pygmy possum species: the eastern pygmy-possum (Cercartetus nanus) and the little pygmy-possum (Cercartetus lepidus). The latter weighs only around 7 grams, slightly more than a 10-cent piece! Due to their size, it’s rare to capture these cuties on camera or observe them in the wild. Little is known about their status in Tasmania. Like the other possums, pygmy’s are arboreal (adapted to moving about trees and other dense vegetation) with prehensile tails. During the day they shelter in nests situated in tree hollows, beneath bark or leaf litter, inside hollow stumps or old bird’s nests, or between rock crevices — basically anywhere snug. When food (insects, nectar, pollen, small fruits) is scarce, pygmy possums may enter torpor, a kind of hibernation where they drop their heart rate, breathing rate, and temperature (2-3°C above ambient in C. nanus) for several days or even weeks. They curl up into a ball, fold their ears forward, close their eyes, and coil their tail into a flat spiral. A 2007 lab study on eastern pygmy possums recorded an incredible torpor period of 367 days!
