Tuesday, July 03, 2007
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- The joke's on me
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19 Comments:
So, what is he?
It's a possum!
Cute! It's amazing how different the same animals look on different continents... Possums aren't nearly that cute in the US.
Reminds me of the raccoon my wife and I saw on our honeymoon in Cozumel, Mexico - it looked completely different too.
He looks like a baby. Is he a baby? He's so very cute! Did you use a zoom lens? How close did he let you get?
I think it must be a teenage possum. Old enough to be out on its own, but not full-sized yet. Or maybe mummy possum told him not to go out after sunrise, and he said, "Hrmph, I'll show her!" and snuck out when the rest of the family was asleep.
I was only a couple of metres away (um, six feet?). So only zoomed in a little bit (my camera only has a crappy 3x built-in zoom anyway). Australian possums are pretty tame, really, since lots of people feed them, and they are a protected species without any real predators. Also, I doubt they have very good eyesight in the daytime. It could definitely see me, but wasn't sure perhaps what I was.
Oh, and it was probably also not running away because it was pathetically grateful to me. When I found it, it was being hassled by a crow (which was the whole reason I looked under the car in the first place---to see what the crow was trying to bite).
Very cute. It's probably a bad reflection on me, but my first reaction on seeing possums is still to reach for a weapon. Even though I know they are protected over here, I have to consciously stop myself from immediately killing them. Too many years of culling them behind me, basically.
(Australians in the audience need not fear - I have not failed to control my urges while here, your native wildlife is safe from me. It's just that if I ever find the grave of the dozy bugger that introduced possums to NZ, I _will_ dance on it.)
I know. I have similar issues. My first response on seeing a possum is to murmur, "You'd make a nice pair of socks, yes you wouldsies."
But then I feel a pang of guilt, so I'm learning.
Ah, but I am heading back over before October, probably permanently, so I may fall back into my evil ways.
They make very nice fur hats...
Yeah, that's definately cuter than any I've ever seen in US.
You know, it even looks endangered. I've never seen a possum in NZ looking so...tentative!
Possums need PROTECTING?
They are cute, though. A couple of possums once ate about a third of my then-boyfriend's little plot of funny stuff up in the bush. The idiot let them have it. "They looked so CUTE," he said. "And they were so STONED. It seemed unfair to spoil their fun."
I told him it wouldn't have been unfair at all. After all, how many possums in NZ get to die happy?
Thanks for the scoop styley... tame possums... huh?
I agree with Grace, he looks tentative... and totally harassed by that crow, and totally grateful...
Are you from the West Coast, Badaunt? Your anecdote just totally reminds me of people I've met there.
Best possum story EVER, by the way.
Possum story? Remind me to tell you the one about the house renovations, the possum, me, dad, Vernon and the world war one sword bayonets some time...
Of COURSE you have a story about possums and WWI bayonets, Weekend_Viking. I should have guessed :)
Dunedin. I lived there for a year.
Those possums were like the hedgehogs in the Bogor cartoons. (Remember those?) They kept coming back for more.
He's so cute. Is he a brushy?
Adorable!! Thanks for posting the photos!
Talk to me! (You know you want to!)