YOWIE CELEBRITY CHEF

[AL Pitman]

Has anyone on AYR
Tried something like a lipstick camera concealed down in the leaf litter rather than the normal high mounted trail cam
Just a thought and maybe another tact ??

[Dion]

Hey ripperton

I'd be curious to know if any wildlife happened to chomp down on one of those strawberries that just might have a needle in it, causing some distress to wildlife, chances are unlikely but .....

Also I dont think the rangers would be too pleased to know you are pretty much planting crops of wild tomatoes by placing them there. I dont think I need to give an explanation of how that will happen. Just be mindful of what you introduce to the bush, as it might take over.

Keep it up though.

[ripperton]

Hey ripperton
I'd be curious to know if any wildlife happened to chomp down on one of those strawberries that just might have a needle in it,
Also I dont think the rangers would be too pleased to know you are pretty much planting crops of wild tomatoes by placing them there. I dont think I need to give an explanation of how that will happen. Just be mindful of what you introduce to the bush, as it might take over.
Keep it up though.

Ive checked the strawberries with a powerful magnet. Then I found a needle and pushed it into one of the strawberries just to see how the strawberry would react to the magnet. Needles arnt 316 Stainless Steel as I feared but just normal steel and the pointy end of the strawberry lifts toward the magnet.
i hear what youre saying about the tomatoes and I will make sure I extract all the uneaten ones.
I tried roast chicken again but dont think anything will happen to it. I took the leg string off.
Left the corn and tomatoes there and added the strawberries.

[ripperton]

The paranormal thing is, Ive tripped the camera with my hand as Ive closed the door on it so the range isnt a problem ie its not too close to the food but someone correct me if they have experienced anything different.
So how the heck did that corn cob get up into the back of the cave like that and not have a single kernel eaten off it.
And how did a corn cob and a tomato get down onto the lower ledge without just falling all the way down the cliff.

[inthedark]

The paranormal thing is, Ive tripped the camera with my hand as Ive closed the door on it so the range isnt a problem ie its not too close to the food but someone correct me if they have experienced anything different.
So how the heck did that corn cob get up into the back of the cave like that and not have a single kernel eaten off it.
And how did a corn cob and a tomato get down onto the lower ledge without just falling all the way down the cliff.

Did you capture the food thief on your cam?

[inthedark]

Nothing thats what !!
No video clips !. the corn cobs were moved around but not eaten.
One corn cob was down on the same lower ledge as the one found in the first placement.
No tomatoes seem to have been eaten but 2 of them were also moved, one of those also down on the
lower ledge with the corn cob.
Heres before and after shots

Sorry, missed this!

The likeliest explanation is that it's small animals. Or at least, animals which aren't big enough to trigger the cam. Obviously, something 9' tall would trigger it

[ripperton]

A "small animal" would eat it rather than push it around.
Ive had a Bandicoot trigger it at 5 meters.

[ripperton]

Chicken is gone ! no bones no left overs.
Strawberries are still there.
Corn cobs still uneaten but pushed around.
Tomatoes still there.
Bloody trouble with the trail cam not recording anything.
I approached the placement from above with a big stick and waved it around sideways and toward the camera but
did not record any video. Brought the whole trailcam home and tested it.
There are some problems with the MicroSD card adaptor. Sometimes not registering a card.
Ive set up the camera in my driveway to see what sort of vids Im getting.
I also found a way of getting down to the bottom of the cliff. I went and scouted around for any chicken bits or tomatoes but nothing.
Its very lush down there, classic rain forrest and some of the leaves look like theyve been walked on or padded down by something light.
Before and after.

[Wollemi Explorer]

I love to see what you are doing,
I am waiting for that special picture.
But...
I would assume that your stick waving shouldn't trigger the camera.
Wouldn't the camera be waiting to sense a heat source?
And as was mentioned, a small animal could feast and not trigger the camera.
As summer is approaching, there will be hungry skinks,
blue tongues and cunninghams skinks, and similar,
All looking for a feed.
Their own body temp will be similar to day, air, temps.
So they will be so unlikely to set off the camera.
Good luck in your endeavours.

[ripperton]

I love to see what you are doing,
I am waiting for that special picture.
But...
I would assume that your stick waving shouldn't trigger the camera.
Wouldn't the camera be waiting to sense a heat source?

That "special picture" isnt going to happen. Im not waiting for any hairys to surrender themselves
to the glare of human curiosity. Im expecting more mysteries, even more tangible that the last one.
The fact that the camera didnt work doesnt matter. The fact that the chicken disappeared but the
strawberries, corn and tomatoes didnt is a mystery. Those 3 items did disappear in previous placements but not this time.
Normal animals are not selective, hairys are !
The camera works off both motion and changes in ambient temp so a stick being waved should trigger the camera.

[Shazzoir]

Normal animals are not selective, hairys are !

Carnivores won't be interested in non-meat things, and vegetarian/herbivorous creatures won't take meat, so yeah, they will be selective when presented with a feast of both types of food.

I suspect a wild domestic cat took your chicken. Can you sprinkle some sand in a perimeter around the food to capture tracks?

Shazz

[ripperton]

Not making sense.
The strawberries, tomatoes and corn were all eaten the previous times but not this time over the same time span = 1 week.
They should all be gone. If birds ate the strawberries last time, why didnt they eat them this time.
Theres the selectivity, same food, same animal.
I can see a cat moving a fresh kill with its skin still in tact, would be easy to pick up with relatively small jaws but fresh cooked
chicken with tender meat and detached skin would be extremely hard to move, it would just fall apart and over that terrain...to hard.
Sand is a good idea, will try it next time.

The trail cam is inconsistent. Its been triggered 10 times by wind blowing trees but not by a car being parked in front of the trees.

[ripperton]

Stuff is getting weird. Ive figured out how food is getting down onto the lower ledge.
It appears the Celebrity Kitchen has its own garbage chute !!. (BTW the Yowies are the celebrities 8^))
This is a long sloping cavity in the rocks leading from the placement down to the lower ledge.
Heres a recent photo shopped to show the path of the chute in yellow.

[ripperton]

This a photo shot in the opposite direction of most of the placement photos ie from the centre back out towards where I usually stand.
The start of the chute is right next to where Ive been placing most of the food but I never realised it was there, it was behind a rock.

[ripperton]

There are little gaps between the rocks forming the chute so I could stick the camera in there and take a shot.
This one is from about half way down facing downwards just after its gone around a right hand corner.
The trees you can see are 10m down on the cliff floor.

[ripperton]

Next is from the bottom up. the chute is pretty steep but there are a few rocks in it.

[ripperton]

This is the exit of the chute onto the ledge.
I tested the chute by lobbing a corncob in from the top but it didnt make it round the corner.
I had to thread my hand in through one of the gaps and help it along but as soon as it got around the corner it slid
all the way down and ended up on the ledge.
When I discovered the chute there was nothing stuck in it and wondered how every single piece of food that I ever found
on the ledge made it all the way down without being helped.
In total 4 corn cobs and 2 baby tomatoes.

[ripperton]

photo

[ripperton]

This last batch of corn was pecked at by birds only.
Did not see any of the kernels sheared off by shovel type teeth as in the first batch.

[ripperton]

Now with my new found technology (thanks to Rusty) I can reboot the Celebrity Chef operation.
Same corn and chicken but with Sony 412 sealed in a zip lock bag right up the back of the placement.
Also placed the trail cam in a separate area about 50m away to attract the Hairies, yep attract.
They can see the infrared shine from far away and know the humans are up to something so come to
investigate. But as Rustys videos show, they dont seem to care about being recorded on audio.

[gregvalentine]

Now with my new found technology (thanks to Rusty) I can reboot the Celebrity Chef operation.
Same corn and chicken but with Sony 412 sealed in a zip lock bag right up the back of the placement.
Also placed the trail cam in a separate area about 50m away to attract the Hairies, yep attract.
They can see the infrared shine from far away and know the humans are up to something so come to
investigate. But as Rustys videos show, they dont seem to care about being recorded on audio.

Those damn yowies eat better than I do . . . !

[Black]

This is a bastardisation of the original reason behind leaving food.

You are visiting someone's house (the Bush location), you have entered their kitchen, lounge room, bedrooms, and bathroom. You have entered someone's private space.

Food is an offering of something in return for your visit. An acknowledgement of thanks for letting you wander around their home, and a sign of respect.

This is the indigenous approach, and the correct approach

Leaving food in front of a camera as a way of tricking, to get a photo, is disrespectful, and you'll pay the price.

[ripperton]

Apparently they arnt home right now so Im thinking they are Nomadic ie they avoid inclement weather like heat waves and thunder storms which is what the sound recorder picked up amongst other things like bush flies, possums, RAAF hercs (props and jets), crickets. Bizzaar sticks snapping without foot steps.
This time the chicken looked like it was eaten by animals ie there were bits left on the ground and crunched bones. It didnt disappear completely like last time, like 2 hands picked it up and carried it off. Rmbr a roast chicken is extremely fragile. You cant pick it up by grabbing a leg and lifting. It will just fall apart.
Also the corn cobs were pecked at by beaks. A bush fly was walking around on the zip lock bag sounded a lot like tampering.
The zip lock bag worked well ie didnt muffle the sound and would have kept moisture out. It was out of the rain anyway.

[ripperton]

2 valleys away from the original "CHEF" site, Ive continued with food and trail cam.
More strange results. I left 2 large quarters of watermelon, 5 apples and 3 corn cobs surveilled by my trail cam.
I take a big bight out of both watermelons to show its not poisoned.
Came back a week later and nothing has been eaten or moved. Not a single bird peck or bight but there is a bird on the trail cam that looks a bit like a pigeon and also a wallaby.
So I take the trail cam and leave the food as is.
Come back a week later and 3 apples are missing, all corn is missing and both watermelons have moved 50cm and been half eaten by birds.
I go scouting around the site and find an apple about 5 meters away half eaten and a corn cob about 12 meters away under a small rock ledge !.
All of this can be explained by natural animals but the strange thing is how come nothing happened for a whole week while the trail cam was there ?