While I'm at it, any Brushtail Possum gurus around?

[Psychaesthetic]

lol... after checking I realise you are the mad bushman Riley

you pissed me no end then , your last tirade at me pissed me again.

No fckn wonder you end up spending your time out with the animals

Don't be a whiny bitch, I wasn't that bad ;)

And I didn't change my username as part of some covert, sneaky-arse master-plan of stealthiness, just saw the option in settings, and thought, "mmm".

...

Edited December 25, 2014 by Psychaesthetic

[incognito]

Did santy not bring you the new Susan Boyle album wb?

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Babahahahahaha

[Micromegas]

Hi psychaesthetic, i'm glad your efforts to spend time in the bush turned out well and you are making some connections there.

I live in the "bush" too, in a house though but a long way from anywhere really.

I am strongly adverse to people feeding wildlife.

Aside from being fed unhealthy food that causes malnutrition in marsupials especially in public picnic areas (birds are more hardy) there are other side effects to feeding wildlife in australia even if you chose "healthy" food, which you seem to do, or do so in a more remote environment.

Feeding wildlife can muck around with the way ecosystems work by adding more available energy into the environment. Animals that are already dominant end up with the energy. Think for example in urban areas where people love to feed birds. The birds that eat that food are aggressive and dominant birds like choughs, magpies, parrots and large honeyeaters, and they quickly remove smaller birds (like wrens and pardalotes) from gardens.

The animals that people feed are almost always "dominant" animals (like monitors that eat smaller reptiles, marsupials, and birds' eggs) with the ability to exclude smaller more delicate critters.That extra energy can distort the ecosystem balance. If you are doing this regularly, even a few times in some kind of pattern, you will change the way your little piece of bush operates.

I'm glad you have got in touch with the bush and i enjoyed your pictures of the lace monitor, but feeding animals is about more than just how hungry the particular animal in question might be and what sort of food you choose.

Only in rare cases, such as following severe bushfires or floods or in the case of animal rescue, would i ever promote feeding animals and certainly not in functioning bushland. I would also support the "feeding" of small animals for conservation research i.e. to entice animals into traps as part of a targeted or approved study and possibly feral animal control.

Just my two cents.

Edit: I have seen one example where feeding birds was beneficial which was a hummingbird feeding/research program in the US that had been running for over 20 years. The feeders were designed for hummingbirds specifically. Also, birds are nowhere near as territorial or aggressive in the US, or on any other continent, as they are in Australia, so the same dominance issue does not arise. Australia is weird, and the animal feeding debate is not the same here as elsewhere especially for birds. That being said, a bear would probably become very dangerous if fed even a few times by humans in the wild which is not true of australian marsupials or even reptiles.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Micromegas

[Psychaesthetic]

Surely, the other side of the coin also needs to be considered, since we're talking butterfly-effect-style consequences. If the dominant animals are getting extra food/energy from an external source, then it stands to reason that the food they *would* have eaten is then available to other less aggressive species?

You could say that the aggressive animals will simply eat both their normal foods *and* the new foods, but sadly for them, no animal can be in two seperate areas at the same time thus the less aggressive animals are given a chance to eat while the heavy competition is gone.

You should probably also add to the mix: if there are aggressive animals in any given area pigging-up all the food then isn't that the start-and-end of the problem? and if no external food was made available those animals are still going to leave as little as possible for other species regardless?

Your theory *sounds* very clever, but trying to somehow turn 'more food' into 'less food' is a nonsense: No matter how you stack your words. More anything is more, not less. It can never be less.

If 'aggressive' Possums are stuffing their guts on food given to them, thwre is more for the less aggressive species because the aggressive ones aren't eating as much of the standard food. The Monitor that fills-up on mince won't need to eat for a while afterwards; how many smaller animals are potentially saved by that? Nobody knows, without talking that reptile for weeks to follow it's feeding habits but your logic simply sounds to me like imagination.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Psychaesthetic

[incognito]

I'm sure if u walked around an area with a fricken potato sack full of food feeding the wildlife 12 hours a day ur gonna cause problems. But from what I understand psych does this very occasionally. I don't see what the wahoo is about. But anyways.

[Psychaesthetic]

I'm sure if u walked around an area with a fricken potato sack full of food feeding the wildlife 12 hours a day ur gonna cause problems. But from what I understand psych does this very occasionally. I don't see what the wahoo is about. But anyways.

Well to be honest, sometimes it's every night for the Possums and every day for the birds, but my god this chick just walked past me on her way to the toilet in nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, stopped in the doorway, touched herself, put her hands on her hips and just stood there looking at me, before walking back to her room.

.. yeah sometimes it's daily, while other times I might not see a Possum all week. I always give them something, and a while ago started taking down food that's good for both the animals and myself, but they certainly don't get pig-sized portions: I have to eat for 8-10 days at a time too, and I wouldn't last that long if I feed it all to them.

So they get regular feeding, bit I get the Lions share.

That chick was was pretty fuckin hot. Mmm.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Psychaesthetic

[incognito]

So ur an animal health corruptor AND your stoopid?

U know where her room is ? Knock u idjut, or u do deserve to have ur flesh stripped by your monitors who now associate u with food!!

Edited December 26, 2014 by incognito

[Micromegas]

Hi psychaesthic, you stay in the bush and feed animals, so i guess you have the ideal opportunity to observe.

The question is not about actual availability of food, but of territoriality and dominance in an area where abundant food is perceived to exist and the benefits that can be gained from controlling that area.

Often, the species that are competing do not even eat the same food! I know more about birds than about reptiles and possums, but a noisy minor will defend a significantly sized area against finches because of eucalyptus covered in lerp, even though the finches only want to eat insects, and not lerp! Crows will exclude a whole suite of small insect-foraging species of birds if they are fed meat in a garden, because they are defending a territory where meat is abundant and regular, even if those smaller birds weren't remotely interested in the meat.

Australia is weird; this is possibly a product of our highly infertile soils. More food in one area may indeed mean much less food for certain species, who are aggressively attacked out of those zones if they are particularly easy to defend. Fragmented forest in australia is low in diversity for this very reason: even though the appropriate food is available for all species who used to use that habitat when it was intact, because of its size and fragmentation (and proximity to open fields), it is very easy to defend and less aggressive species (who eat very different food from the aggressors) are harassed out, never to return. And i mean never. There are peer reviewed journal articles about this, i'm not just making up theories on my own i'm nowhere near clever enough for that.

I would have to be an expert in lace monitor and possum ecology (and the ecology of wherever you are living) to debate the impact of your mince meat to its full extent, and I am not, so there's not much more I can say. Ecosystems are almost impossible to understand at more than a vague conceptual level. I still favour a complete abstinence of feeding wild animals "in the wild" because frankly it isn't necessary and serves no benefit to the animals; i think feeding wild animals has more to do with gratifying human desire to connect with nature than an actual benefit to animals, except in some rare contexts i mentioned earlier.

That being said, it's great that you are thinking, and if you are out there, I guess observe for yourself after all you have the opportunity.

I'm sure if u walked around an area with a fricken potato sack full of food feeding the wildlife 12 hours a day ur gonna cause problems. But from what I understand psych does this very occasionally. I don't see what the wahoo is about. But anyways

Agreed i understand that what is going on here is not at all significant in terms of human impact on ecosystems! but there is a discussion here about the impact of feeding animals in the wild. I suppose it is about principle and understanding. If we go into nature to expand our own view of the world, it is worth considering our own impact and the feeling of wanting to give some food to wild animals is part of that.

I'm not having a go at anyone, just presenting a view. You're out there so judge for yourself if you stay long enough to really appreciate the effects and while you are in town of course have fun with the pretty ladies with nothing but underwear and t-shirts i'm still in the bush!

[Psychaesthetic]

So ur an animal health corruptor AND your stoopid?

U know where her room is ? Knock u idjut, or u do deserve to have ur flesh stripped by your monitors who now associate u with food!!

She's already got her boyfriend in her room, they checked-in together. I should've leapt on her while she was walking past.

[Psychaesthetic]

Possums are extremely territorial, especially with other Possums. Judging by the numbers I get Is day there are at least a half dozen with 50 meters of my tent, and Lace Monitors - also territorial - have 'zones' or little blocks of land they walk to and from in s kind of 'shifting territory' patrol.

Both animals are territorial, but the Monitors haven't been around for a few weeks now. I think their nesting and/our mating but even when they dropped by regularly it wouldn't necessarily be every day, they're sporadic.

The Possums and birds are more predictable but still visit sporadically; different time of day or night, visiting on alienate days, sometimes the *fledglings* are with them - for the birds - sometimes not,

Even though the Possums are the more routine-based off the animals that stop by, some nights I'll get just the one, sometimes two and recently I've had up to four at a time. Spreading multiple portions of food around the tent several meters (5-7 approx.) stops fighting, which was starting to happen with just the single 'serve' I started putting out.

When I say fighting though, I mean one Possum chasing the others away and "TUH-TUH-TUH-TUH-TUH.." grunting and other verbalizing that goes on. With multiple 'places' set at the proverbial table, I never hear and fighting or carry-on, and the most aggressive Possum (dubbed Young Bobby McGee, just for id purposes) doesn't leave his plate to chase-off other Possums.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Psychaesthetic

[incognito]

Young fellas these days. I dunno.

[Psychaesthetic]

I'm not used to these.. *open* European tourists though bro! ; (

For clarity too, when she touched herself, it wasn't some Sharon Stone Hollywood thing; more an unconscious, momentary thing I couldn't *not* notice. She didn't rub herself for a full minute while staring seductively at me.

Anyway, there are ladies in the room Incognito, we should at least appear to be gentlemen ;)

Edit: wait a second, are you really male Micro? Your writing style had a distinctly feminine calmness about it.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Psychaesthetic

[Psychaesthetic]

Time for some creepypastas before bed I think.

[Micromegas]

Haha i'm male and you can send some of those european (female) tourists my way no one comes to Pilbara in summer lol!

The episode of the fighting possums becoming placated by food might be an example of how providing food can cause alterations in a normal natural cycle, i.e. you provide food, so additional possums came (when they may have otherwise dispersed), but possums are highly territorial so they started fighting, until you gave them food at which point they chilled out, and then you went in to town to chase foreign backpackers!! so what happens then?

My point is, immediate results of our actions in natural environments just simply do not reflect ongoing changes that may occur as the result of even apparently minor involvement.

Just saying!

Have fun out there! Brushtails vanished from my part of the Pilbara about 50 yrs ago (presumably due to cats) so can you send some of them cuties along with the backpacker cuties i promise i will feed them both.

I'm out!

[Psychaesthetic]

The one species that has the situation completely figured out, is the Rats. I leave my tent setup when I'm in town - since it's only a few days and I just can't be fucked packing it all up every time I leave - and left alone for almost a week at a time, no other animal has so much as even scratched or gouged the tent.

A few weeks ago: Enter the Rats.

Since they showed up, twice they've chewed holes in the tent floor when I'm not there, corresponding with the only two occasions when I've *not* tossed food around before leaving.

Like little shit-bag blackmailing Mafia motherfuckers they are; "Leave some food when you go, or we'll mess your shit up."

Cute little shit-bags though.

[paradox]

twice they've chewed holes in the tent floor when I'm not there

no shit sherlock

[Psychaesthetic]

no shit sherlock

Twice out of ten times is hardly regular enough to be a 'no shit Sherlock' deal, Bro.

[paradox]

Bro, get real, negatively impacting wild animals entirely aside, the first rule of living in th bush is basically be extremely careful with your food & most definitely don't feed rodents. i guess you'll just have to find out the hard way.. it must be strange living in a place you understand so little about.. i do wish you luck, so those lessons you're so hell bent on not taking advice about don't hit home too hard.

just so you know, it's not ideology, it's basic logic that is obvious to anyone who knows a little more than nothing about living in the bush.. the silly thing is you seem surprised that rats have eaten your shit up

as you say yapping is one thing humans do a lot of. Being clueless self serving tool bags is another right?

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Life's a bit subjective sometimes

[paradox]

yeah it is.. & i've been going through a particularly frustrated-at-humans period so i should just bow out from posting at the moment.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Hope alls well paradox

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Feed those possums fruit Riley!

[Psychaesthetic]

yeah it is.. & i've been going through a particularly frustrated-at-humans period so i should just bow out from posting at the moment.

You keep on with your verbal masturbatory "oh humans are so shit compared to me" dribble, I got me a possum outside to hand-feed.

[Psychaesthetic]

Feed those possums fruit Riley!

Fresh banana tonight ;)