Feb Report

[forestguy]

I made a short visit today to an area I haven't been to for about a year.

An AYR member recently told me that while driving past this area late at night earlier in the year they had something large in 4x4 mode run in front of their car. The purpose of today's visit was to reacquaint myself with the location and to place a temptation bait.

On arrival the first thing I noticed was a round whole that had been cleared in the mulch/ leaf litter beside where I parked - the photo doesn't show it clearly, but the hole is around 30 cms deep.

BRX Hole 240210.JPG

I had in mind a small creek I wanted to follow to a clearing that I visited last year. After finding the creek I followed a small game trail running beside it, along which I found a pretty clear tree break, and a tree crook which looked to hold at least 6 different sticks of different varieties from the tree itself.

BRX Break 240210.JPG

BRX Stack 240210.JPG

After reaching the clearing I scouted around and noticed the extensive scratching on a few trees, particularly this one:

BRX Scratches 240210.JPG

BRX Scratches 2 240210.JPG

BRX Scratches 3 240210.JPG

BRX Scratches 4 240210.JPG

Can anyone help with ID on the scratches? Goanna, possum, koala?

For the temptation bait I used a slab of pork rind that I'd baked/grilled to start rendering the fat and get the scent moving. I placed it in a small net bag to deter birds, and hoisted it up a small tree to a height of around 2+m.

BRX Tempt 240210.JPG

BRX Tempt 2 240210.JPG

BRX Tempt 3 240210.JPG

Anyway, I'll head back to check it on the weekend - in the meantime any help with identifying the scratches on the tree would be great.

Ta,
FG

[Ella]

FG, I'm simply amazed by the thoroughness, meticulous attention to detail, and no-nonsense approach of the Yowie researchers. The Bigfoot community of my own country--at least the Internet community--could sure take a lesson from yall. Sometimes there has been so much infighting and competition over here that Bigfoot itself just falls through a crack. Not that we don't have some very fine researchers over here--just that IMO, almost everybody wants to be the first to "discover" BF and are envious of anyone else's findings and recognition for that. The behavior is sometimes more like that of a school of piranhas in a feeding frenzy than of a community with a common goal.

Awesome pictures! I look forward to your next visit to that area--or any area.

[scuba]

the scratches appear to be made by either koalas, or large possoms.
so many scratches means the tree is used regularly so a quick look higher up for nesting holes could be a good indicator of whether or not it is a possom.

[forestguy]

Thanks Ella.

Hey Scuba, ta. Would the scratches be expected to continue right up the tree? And in the same quantity?

Cheers,
FG

[forestguy]

As I was getting at in my last post earlier today, the scratches rapidly diminished further up the tree and seem to disappear after a couple of metres.

Here's a view of one of the trees for perspective, and a close up of a section of it close to the top - as I said, I can't make out too many scratches up there (I've had to shrink the pics to post them, so they've lost a fair bit of crispness from what I'm looking at...).

BRX Tree View 240210.JPG

BRX Tree View 2 240210.JPG

[forestguy]

Bump... just wondering if anyone knows any more about goanna/koala/possum scratches...

[Ella]

Betcha some of the Australians do!

[scuba]

Thanks Ella.

Hey Scuba, ta. Would the scratches be expected to continue right up the tree? And in the same quantity?

Cheers,
FG

scratches like this from possoms are usually more frequent on the lower part of the tree for two reasons.

1- activity and threat displays from possoms are very vocal with possoms moving around the base of a tree to try to show other possoms of their ownership. thus creating more scratches on the base. and
2- possoms also feel safer higher up in a tree so the transition from ground to tree canopy slows down some what. The speed a possom would climb at the base being much quicker causing more scratches.

[forestguy]

Cool bananas - thanks Scuba.