Got something rather unexpected on the trail cam a few days ago, the Double Tap in one of the possum feeders was vanishing at an incredible rate despite being held in place with wire to make it difficult for rats to carry off, so I pointed a trail cam at it. The first thing it picked up was a neighbour’s cat that had escaped out of the house and gone missing (she’s back indoors now with a warning note to keep the doors closed), the next was a possum happily eating its body weight in Double Tap. Those things must carry a ton of fleas because it was constantly scratching itself everywhere.
Anyway, as it sat there gorging on Double Tap a different cat came up behind it and started sniffing it and poking it with its nose. The possum completely ignored it and after a minute or two the cat got bored and wandered off.
The light furry object is the cat, I think it’s a creamy colour in non-B&W, the dark furry thing behind it is the possum that’s just been poked by the cat, which just kept on munching Double Tap like it was granola or something.
A day or two later a sole rat came and ate what was left of the bait. These cameras are a godsend for figuring out what’s going on in situations like this.
[quote=“kahikateatree, post:21, topic:7813”]
The possum completely ignored it and after a minute or two the cat got bored and wandered off.
[/quote] assuming the possum wasn’t dead by this stage? or feeling really ill? Handy camera work though, thanks for that. Good explanation too, as the possum’s idea of enough is obviously a lot more than what is enough to kill it …
Are we able to add kiwi to the list? We get a lot of kiwi footage and it IDs it as Ferret.
Also, hotkeys would be excellent so you can quickly go through the images IDing them.
E.g. P = a confirmed possum.
It wasn’t moving much when it was eating but had been vigorously scratching itself earlier on when it wandered around the feeder, I initially thought it might be dead given the lack of movement but it had gone the next morning (“People have got to know whether or not their possum is crook. Well, I am not crook”). Problem is that with virtually no motion in the target the camera doesn’t trigger, it was purely the cat poking around that triggered the recording of the motionless possum at the feeder.
I haven’t checked the camera for a few days because of weather and because the last time I looked the bait was still present, but then I’ve also got two rat traps set up near it to catch the rat(s) that were there, I’ll post an update when something happens.
