Saturday, November 7, 2015

Mystery solved

You may have heard me refer to bush rats, from time to time - digging up my planted seeds and eating my tomatoes and strawberries. I haven't actually seen one, but I guessed it was one, by what I read on sites which described the way they tunnel and what they fed on.

Well, last night, I got a visual of these critters, on our back verandah and its not a bush rat. It's a Northern Brown Bandicoot. Our inside lights attract all the Christmas beetles, this time of year. They were the easiest meal for the bandicoot to eat, as they were on their backs and couldn't fly away. No wonder I don't find a trace of beetles around our verandah in the morning.

They were very quick at eating them, as I could hear, "crunch-crunch-crunch", and then they were onto the next one.


Northern Brown Bandicoot


This photo was not taken from our back verandah, but it looked almost the same. They first drew my attention when I heard something "thud" outside. Then I opened the sheer curtain and spied a huge marsupial. It was almost the size of our cat. It hoped along like a rabbit, from beetle to beetle.

It didn't seem phased by us, although we did stay behind the screen door. Upon reading about it further, apparently its short sighted, which would explain why it didn't run a mile away when we spoke.

There is still a mystery to be solved, however, considering these guys don't dig burrows. Their nests are generally above ground, or in hollow logs or disused rabbit burrows. They do however, dig up lawns for beetle larvae and earthworms. Which would explain why I don't find many earthworms in my cultivated areas - but plenty of snout-sized holes!

With the mystery of the underground burrows, perhaps I still have bush rats, after all?


8 comments:

  1. We have these too. Wish they would come up the stairs to our veranda and eat the xmas beetles! I caught one in the chicken tractor once. They used to dig in my garden but I fixed up the fence so they couldn't get in. Now its a fortress, no badicoots rabbits wallabies or chickens can get in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Liz. I can't blame you for building a fortress around your garden. Those native animals sure like an easy meal. I suspect the bandicoots are probably keeping a lot of lawn grubs and other beetle larvae ,under control, around here. If they weren't, we'd probably have twice as many insects!

      I wonder if you built a ramp, if they would venture onto your verandah? They may not be fans of steps. :)

      Delete
  2. The Eastern Barred Bandicoot used to exist in our area, but it's long since gone due to habitat destruction. I think it's still around in other parts of Victoria. How lucky you are!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always suspected we had bandicoots, by their shallow holes in the garden, but never actually sighted one. I wonder how many times they've ventured to our verandah at night, and I haven't seen them? Its good to a have a natural predator, keeping the insects in check. ;)

      From what I've been reading, some pockets of bandicoots can still survive in urban settings. So long as they get an area that doesn't have too many domestic dogs out at night. So you might have a very small population around, and not know it. Although, the shallow holes in the lawn/garden, are a dead giveaway.

      Delete
  3. Oh dear. It still looks like a rat, which doesn't warm it to one's heart. Neither does destroying one's garden! However, they get 5 stars for eating those beetles!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does look like a rat, doesn't it? The tell tale sign its not, is its hoping mobility, rather than walking. It definitely had us stumped, at first. My husband and daughter, both thought it was a possum, and I thought it was a bush rat. Google helped me identify it later on. :)

      Delete
  4. Chris, do you not have gophers or moles n your area? We had them here and you can walk over the tunnels they dig and feel a soft give beneath your feet. I cant recall how we got rid of them, or if we did anything, but they are gone now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We don't get gophers and moles like the northern hemisphere. Our native earth movers, are primarily marsupials, which aren't the same as rodents. They do serve a purpose of aerating the soil and keeping insects under control though. We're having to stretch the neighbourly relations, so we can strike a balance. ;)

      Delete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I love reading what you have to share. Gully Grove is a Spam free environment though, so new commenter’s only leaving hyperlinks, will be promptly composted.