OOPA: Golden Possum turns up in Brisbane

We love it when unusual wildlife turn up where they're not supposed to - in this case the rather splendid-looking Golden Possum, a rare colour phase previously only known to turn up in small pockets of Tasmania (and every once in a Blue Moon, on the outskirts of somewhere like Sydney).

These beauties have a hard time in the wild - it's tricky staying out of sight from large predators like Powerful Owls when your fur is as blingy as this bloke's!

So our thanks to Queensland-based CFZ Australia reader Dylan Smerdon for sharing his friend Auresh Yousefpour's pictures of this rare beauty, which appeared in a suburban backyard in Highgate Hill, Brisbane recently. We've never heard of a Golden Possum so far north.

Have you seen an Out of Place Animal (OOPA) in Australia? Send in your pics, we'd love to see and share them on the blog.

OOPA: Monster crab from Tasmania emigrates to UK

Claude the Tasmanian giant crab, was saved from death when the fisherman who caught him sold him to a British aquarium  for £3000.

A 29-hour plane journey from Australia later, and a short stint in quarantine, Claude is now ready to meet the British public at the Sea Life centre in Weymouth, Dorset.

The hefty crustacean weighs a mighty 15lb with a 15-inch shell – 100 times bigger than a standard UK shore crab - but will grow to double his weight.

Read more at The Daily Mail.

OOPA: Emu loose in North Devon

A fugitive emu that went walkabout in a north Devon town has been apprehended by the police.
Amazed residents called the police and two officers seized the flightless bird before it could wander into rush-hour traffic in Barnstaple.

They held the animal – originally a native of Australia rather than south-west England – in the back of their patrol car for half anhour before an animal ambulance arrived and took it away.
Officers are searching for the owner of the bird.

Acting Sergeant Zoe Parnell said she had just begun her shift at 7am on Wednesday when she got a call that an ostrich was on the loose in Riddell Avenue, a residential street in the town.
"I thought it was a wind-up," she said. "I thought we'd arrive and it would be a turkey or something like that." She rushed to the scene, where she was joined by police community support officer Stephen Huxtable.

Parnell said she wasn't sure what the creature was but knew that they had to stop it reaching the main road, where the bird could have caused rush-hour chaos.

"It was trying to get into people's houses. Obviously it was finding that difficult, and would try the next one. I must admit that while I'm not normally scared of birds, I was a bit nervous with this one."
It fell to Huxtable to seize the bird and put it in the back of the police car.

Like many others apprehended by the police, the emu was not happy. "There was a lot of wee-ing and poo-ing and flying feathers in the back of the car," said Parnell. "It's going to have to be specially cleaned."

She thought about giving the bird a drink from her water container "but it was a bit distressed so I thought it was better to leave it", she said.

Instead, the officers called for backup from Diana Lewis, north Devon's "animal angel" and a leading light in North Devon Animal Ambulance.

The emu remains in her care while the search for the owner continues.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was not necessary to have a licence to keep an emu.
However, Wendy Higgins of the Humane Society International/UK flagged up concerns: "In Britain, we keep more exotic wild pets than cats or dogs, and often residents can be completely unaware they are living next door to a python or a primate. Often it is only when an escape or an accident occurs that their existence is revealed.

"Unbelievably, there is no definitive national register of the number and variety of exotic animals being kept in the UK or traded globally.

"Wild and exotic animals are not pets, but a welfare disaster waiting to happen. It is high time the appalling commerce in wild animals for the pet trade was brought under serious control and preferably banned altogether."

Emus used to fall under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 but have been delisted.
Higgins said: "However, the list of species covered has been seriously reduced, many local authorities fail to effectively enforce he legislation, and there are serious questions regarding the competence of those that do. As a result, non-compliance levels are believed to be high."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/28/escaped-emu-walkabout-barnstaple

*Barnstaple is not far from the headquarters of the CFZ UK - If they never find the owner, perhaps Jon Downes could take it in!

OOPA: UK wallaby sighting delights and surprises

Well I’ll be! A wallaby who hopped its way down a farm track in Pluckley is now set to become a YouTube hit, according to Kent Online.A 14-second film clip was taken by village resident Alex Pooley who caught the cheeky creature on camera as she walked her dog Shackleton, two.
The 29-year-old said: “We were in a field near the train station and I saw what I thought was a giant hare, but then it moved and started hopping.

“I was a bit surprised to say the least and the dog was off the lead at the time and he went off to investigate. They ran around for a couple of minutes and then he came back and I put him on the lead.
“Then I saw it hopping down the path towards us. It seemed pretty friendly and quite intrigued because it came right up to us.”
Grabbing her mobile phone, teacher Alex managed to film the animal before it once again hopped off.
Wallabies are generally found in Australia though have been spotted in the UK including areas of Devon and East Sussex.
In 2009 a ghost hunting trip to Pluckley that ended up with a family being spooked by a wallaby (pictured above).

Mum Mandy Page took daughters Sophie and Lauren for a bit of spirit spotting in November. But instead of a headless horseman, they found a wallaby staring back at them.
The month before that, commuter Ula Griggs encountered a wallaby crossing the road. The stunned motorist saw it bounce across at Bell Lane, just outside Pluckley.
In 2005 a wallaby (pictured left) was hit by motorist Kate Scorey at the Texaco garage, A20 outside Lenham as she was driving home in the dark.
In September 2008, a wallaby was spotted on Magpie Hall Road in Stubbs Cross. It was believed to be Wesley, a wallaby that had escaped from a farm eight years before and was frequently glimpsed around the area.
The creatures have a life expectancy of about 18 years.

OOPA: Wallaby carnage in Woodchester UK

A mysterious blood-thirsty wild cat is feared to have struck again after three wallabies were found devoured on farmland in the Cotswolds area of the United Kingdom.

The trio were found stripped to the bone, with their internal organs neatly placed beside their bodies.

Examinations revealed they had suffered puncture wounds to the neck - consistent with a vicious attack by a panther-like creature.

Experts now believe the animals were devoured by the Wildcat of Woodchester which is already believed to have killed three times this month.

The mutilated bodies of three deer have been found in the past few weeks in countryside near Stroud, Gloucestershire -  just 12 miles from where the wallabies were mauled to death.

The wallabies were found only 12 miles apart leading to the belief that it was the same cat

Samples of DNA  from the predator's first deer kill on January 4 are currently being tested to confirm whether or not a big cat is behind the killings.

The results are expected to be revealed over the next few days.

But big cat expert Frank Tunbridge is in no doubt over who killed the wallabies and the deer.

Mr Tunbridge, 65, said: 'There could be no creature other than a big cat that could bring down and kill these wallabies.

'The field was surrounded by a 7ft fence and there was no apparent entry signs - so the predator must have leapt over it.

'The killer struck over two nights. The first night he killed two wallabies, stripped one of the carcasses down and hid the other under a pile of leaves and straw.

'Then he came back and killed a third - devouring his further kills. A fourth wallaby appears to have died from a heart attack.

'The wallabies are only about 12 miles from Woodchester so it appears that this could be the same big cat.

'They have all the hallmarks of a panther or puma kill.'

The wallabies, part of a private collection, were found by their devastated owner on January 6 - two days after the apparent first kill by the Wildcat of Woodchester.

The Gloucestershire farmer did not want to divulge his name or location.

But he did release gory pictures of one of the dead wallabies.

The carcass had been ripped open in a similar way to the three roe deers the beast is believed to have slayed.

The first deer had been torn open and was missing its heart, kidneys and liver.

Its snout was also missing - important because big cats clamp their jaws over the mouth, causing death by suffocation.

Experts believe the deer was brought down and devoured by a large and powerful predator such as a puma, jaguar or leopard.

Tufts of the animal’s fur were also found piled by the body - and such predators neatly pluck the hair from the body before shearing their teeth into the flesh.

Another deer carcass was found by a dog walker between Whiteway and Redcomb, near Cirencester - ten miles away - on January 10.

A third roe deer body was found at a development in Cooper’s Edge, near Gloucester, days later.

Dr Robin Allaby, an expert in evolutionary genetics at Warwick University’s School of Life Sciences, is studying samples of DNA taken from the first carcass.

He said: 'I’m prepared to believe in the existence of big cats in the UK and we have a reasonable chance of finding out if it was there.

'We are in the process of studying samples of DNA taken from the deer and if its death was the result of a big cat then we’re hoping it left cheek cells and saliva.'

Is this the culprit? A picture of a large black cat taken in the area.

OOPA: Cuscus a long way from home

A mysterious spotted creature dropped off at a zoo in China is actually a type of possum most likely smuggled into the country as a novelty pet.

Keepers at Wenling Zoo in south-eastern China were baffled by the bug-eyed, long-tailed critter, after it was handed in by an unknown man last week.

But not long after the zoo was contacted by Danny Li, an animal enthusiast who lives in Hong Kong, who told them it was a spotted cuscus — a marsupial native to northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia's Maluku Islands.

Missing lynx revealed at Weird Weekend 2011

Last week UK news site This is Devon covered an intriguing story that was also the subject of a talk at this year's Weird Weekend: the discovery of a 100-year-old specimen in a museum basement. We'll be featuring the video of the talk by Max Blake and Dr Darren Naish on this blog, but in the meantime here's the story:

The evidence includes the body of a lynx that was shot in mid-Devon just over a century ago, and leopard hairs and plaster-cast paw prints found recently near Woolfardisworthy that have been positively identified by independent experts.

Jonathan Downes, director of CFZ, told the Western Morning News: “We showed the lynx to various people last night and Dr Darren Naish and student Max Blake will be explaining its story this weekend. It is absolutely fascinating and it proves big cats are not a new thing.

“Max discovered the lynx in the archives of Bristol Museum and realised the importance of it,” said Mr Downes. “The animal was shot over 100 years ago in mid-Devon and that’s important because it proves there have been exotic cats in British countryside for many years.

“This animal has provenance – we have the date, time and the name of the person who presented it to the museum. This is a breakthrough,” he added saying that the stuffed body was of an animal smaller than a Euro-Asian lynx.

“It is within size the range normally equated with a Canadian lynx,” said Mr Downes. “So is it a Canadian lynx that was in captivity and escaped? Or it might be something even more interesting? There were no zoos in Devon that it could have escaped from at the time it was shot.

“The Devonshire naturalist HG Hurrell – a respected columnist for the Western Morning News – suggested that lynx were living in parts of Westcountry 50 years ago – as did Professor Bernard Heuvalmann, a noted academic. We know there were lynx living in Britain 1500 years ago, but could some have survived?”

Mr Downes said the next move was to have DNA extracted from the animal’s teeth or bone in an attempt to answer the riddle. CFZ also revealed that hairs found in woods near Woolfardisworthy had been positively identified as those of a leopard.

“We had them DNA tested by Durham University and they confirmed they were leopard. This is proof that there was, as of last summer, at least one leopard apparently wild in the woodlands of North Devon,” said Mr Downes.

“Local sightings have gone back an awful long time which implies there’s a population here. A few years ago a local farmer contacted us saying something had attacked one of his sheep – we saw the carcase and it had been killed in a fashion characteristic of a leopard.”

Given the subject matter and that the name of his organisation’s conference is “The Weird Weekend”, did Mr Downes fear that some people might question the seriousness of the evidence?

“We are not making outrageous claims,” he told the WMN. “We are not talking about sabre-toothed tigers or Loch Ness Monsters. That’s all nonsense. We are simply saying an animal can live here and adapt to the natural conditions.”

Oh deer - OOPAs run loose in Qld

Authorities deny they have run out of 'i-deers' after four feral deer that caused peak hour chaos on the Gold Coast this morning eluded capture.

The deer ran amok through Southport this morning, leaping busy roads and high backyard fences as they led their would-be captors and a media posse on a merry chase.

Gold Coast City Council rangers armed with rifles and tranquiliser guns tried to round up the rogue creatures but were outsmarted and outpaced.

"One of our officers is a crack shot but couldn't get within cooee of them,'' said Geoff Irwin, who heads the council's animal control section.

Mr Irwin said the fact the deer were in a built-up area, close to Southport State High, meant shooting them was too dangerous.

He said even using a tranquiliser gun or net gun was difficult because they could only be fired at close range, and the deer moved too quickly.

"They're very fast,'' he said.

Mr Irwin said it was hoped the deer would calm down later today so they could be captured.

The public has been asked to report sightings and warning signs have gone up on roads.

The four deer are believed to be part of a feral herd in the Nerang State Forest, about 10km from Southport, and are thought to have fled a buck deer.

OOPA: Gotcha! Wallaby caught in the UK

CFZ US blogger Nick Redfern has a great post about an out of place animal - a wallaby - on the hop in Dorset in the UK. It's not the first British wallaby that's been featured on this blog (we featured a mother and joey bouncing around Cornwall last month) and no doubt it won't be the last.

As Nick relates, there are a number of interesting stories relative to how and why they are here - but nothing too mysterious. You can read his musings about OOPAs in general here.

This hapless macropod has however since been caught and is destined for a life in a wildlife park in Exminster, Devon.

OOPA: Wallaby with joey spotted in Cornwall

The UK's Telegraph newspaper has reported the discovery of an OOPA - out-of-place-animal - in Cornwall, in the country's west.

Homeowner Brian Nash, 39, provided the best possible proof of his claims that a wallaby was on the loose with a photograph of a mother macropod hopping around a neighbour's lawn with her joey tucked into her pouch.

It is believe the female mated with a male which escaped from a nearby farm in 2007 but was never re-captured. Experts say wallabies are "renowned" for being able to find each other in the wild and it is thought the pair have begun breeding.

The male escaped two years ago from Trevathan Farm near St Endellion.

Owner Mark Symons said: "We lost a male wallaby two years ago and wondered what happened to him. They are very tough creatures and will certainly still be alive.

"He is a healthy boy and will eat anything and would be more than capable of surviving for years yet.

"The chances are he found a mate, a female that also escaped from somewhere."

Hunt on for NZ's mystery moose

In other parts of the world people seek Bigfoot, Nessie or the Tassie Tiger - but in New Zealand it is an elusive moose that has Kiwis on their edge of their seats.

A century after 10 Canadian moose were released in the southern wilds of New Zealand, a company's offer of NZ$100,000 ($74,300) for 'proof of life' has re-ignited speculation about whether any are still alive, The Southland Times reported today.

Southland District Mayor Frana Cardno told The Times that some people had searched for the moose for years and she was convinced one would be found in the Fiordland region - New Zealand's least populated area, in the nation's southwest - one day.

Last year Ken Tustin, of Bull Creek, near Milton, celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the release of moose in Fiordland with a book that details evidence of moose from the area.

The book, A (Nearly) Complete History of the Moose in New Zealand, details encounters with moose in the fiords and the many sightings of the animal by hunters, trampers, fishermen and lighthouse keepers.

The biologist had been collecting evidence and stories of moose in New Zealand for about 40 years and the book offered photo and DNA evidence from as recently as 15 years ago, he said.

Dale Drinnon's Yowie theory - mystery solved?

Over at Frontiers of Zoology, a relatively new blog in the CFZ family, artist and writer Dale Drinnon speculates that some reports of Australia's 'Bigfoot', the Yowie may, in fact, be OOPAs (out of place animals) - specifically, orang-utans from neighbouring Indonesia.

Read more about his theory at Frontiers of Zoology.

While we can't say we 100 per cent agree (some of those Yowie reports are, after all, too strange for words!), it's certainly one of the more original ideas to be put forward in recent times.

And just in case anyone is wondering, we certainly had orangutans in Australian parks (and possibly circuses) during the 1800s, as evidenced by this advertising from 1895 spruiking the 'Wild Man of the Woods'.

Tasmania announces fox scat restrictions

Anyone wishing to bring fox or dog scats into Tasmania will require a permit from today.

Chief Veterinary Officer Rod Andrewartha said although there is little reason for scats to be imported, other than for use in trial work and detector dog training associated with the Fox Eradication Program, the permit requirement would further enhance biosecurity.

“The research and detector dog training by the Fox Eradication Program (FEP) has been carried out with good biosecurity practices and has not compromised Tasmania’s freedom from hydatid disease,” Dr Andrewartha said.

“Because of the measures the FEP has in place and the necessity for its work it will be able to continue under the permit system.

Dr Andrewartha said the permit requirement would further assist the State’s Quarantine Services who would continue to be on the lookout for fox and fox product.
    
“Hydatid is present in mainland states and hydatid eggs can be present in scats from foxes or dogs infected with hydatid tapeworms.

Dr Andrewartha said scats from the mainland posed only a small risk in terms of hydatid disease.

“The FED has continually sought advice from my office on biosecurity measures they should have in place while using scats sourced from the mainland as part of their training and evaluation programs.
           
Dr Andrewartha said the new restrictions included the requirement for a permit to possess a fox scat of mainland origin. 

“Fox scats of Tasmanian origin are specifically exempt from this new requirement so that anyone finding a possible fox scat should have no concern about reporting it to the Fox Eradication Program.

Anyone finding a possible fox scat in Tasmania should report it to the Fox Eradication Program Hotline on 1300 369 688.

“The new requirement does not apply to dog faeces in a cage or vehicle that is bringing a dog into Tasmania. Such a dog has to be treated for hydatid tapeworm and therefore its faeces is not a hydatid risk.

The Tasmanian Government and community undertook a successful campaign to eradicate hydatid disease over 30 years, from the mid 1960s through to the mid 1990s.

Tasmania is the only Australian state free of hydatid disease.

Hydatids is a parasitic infection of various animals that can infect humans caused by a small tapeworm which lives in the intestine of dogs and foxes.

The worm eggs are passed out in the faeces and may infect pasture which is then eaten by sheep, goats or cattle as they graze leading to development of hydatid cysts in these animals.

The cycle is completed by dogs or foxes eating the cysts in infected offal. 

Humans can become infected by picking up worm eggs from dogs. The hydatid cysts that may develop in people can cause serious health problems and in some cases have been fatal.

OOPA: Fox debate rages on in Tasmania

More than a decade after the reported introduction of foxes to Tasmania many people believe that foxes are established, yet others believe that a breeding population does not exist and never has. The elephant in the living room is that a number of things don’t seem to add up and the living room floor is about to collapse if we ignore these things for much longer.

Biologist Dr Clive Marks questions the science being relied upon, and argues for an independent scientific review of the entire application of the scat-DNA technique to confirm once and for all the validity of OOPA foxes in Tasmania.

Elsewhere on the same site, biologist Nick Mooney addresses many of the issues Dr Marks raises, and confirms $20 million has so far been spent trying to discover if foxes really are in Tasmania - and cautions sceptics not to 'throw the baby out with the bath water' when contemplating the existence of Vulpes vulpes in the island state. 

Overseas readers may wonder what the big deal is...the fox is obviously not native to Australia and, until relatively recently, the island state of Tasmanian was considered fox free. So is it or isn't it? That is the question...

OOPA: Foxes in Tasmania

The debate surrounding the possible existence of the cunning and elusive Tasmanian fox (Vulpes vuples) has once again reared its head after a fox was reportedly spotted near the state's capital, Hobart, this week.

Farmer Bob Judd saw what he believes was a fox on his property this week.

"I grew up on a farm in South Australia and I know exactly what a fox looks like," he said. "There was this red apparition running like lightning, grease lightning, up the hill and it was a fox - it had a red bushy tail and all the rest of it."

Officers from the Fox Eradication Program have taken detection dogs down to the property to locate the animal. The Manager of the Fox Eradication Program Alan Johnston, says more than 2,000 fox sightings have been reported since 2002.

Foxes were introduced to Australia in the 1850s by English settlers, but Tasmania remained fox-free until the 1990s when evidence of their presence began turning up.

The fox has inflicted enormous impacts on the native wildlife of Australia, being implicated in the extinction of many native animals.

Tasmanians can report fox sightings and any other evidence (unusual scats, den sites, stock kills) to the FOX HOTLINE 1300 FOX OUT (1300 369 688).

OOPA: Kangaroo hit by car in Germany

An Out of Place Animal (OOPA) a long way from home met an unfortunate end at the hands of a startled German driver this week.

A 53-year-old driver in the Lower Saxony town of Haren was startled when the kangaroo bounced into the path of his car on Wednesday. Despite slamming on his brakes, he hit and injured the animal.

With the help of a local resident, the man captured the kangaroo and took it to the nearby Nordhorn zoo. Vets at the zoo established that the animal had a serious leg fracture they were unable to mend. They therefore put the animal down.

Police announced on Thursday that it was still unclear where the iconic Australian animal had come from.

“So far, no kangaroo from a zoo or animal park has been reported as missing,” a police spokesman said.

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100930-30191.html

OOPA: Monkey spotted roaming Darwin (NT)

AN out-of-place monkey was picked up on CCTV footage crossing a Darwin road. (Pic from NT Department of Lands and Planning)

A bus driver and several passengers saw the small primate wandering around Darwin's northern suburbs on Friday morning.

Following the sightings, the Northern Territory environment department issued a warning for people to stay clear of the animal.

All registered monkeys have been accounted for.

The department says the roaming monkey could have been brought illegally to the Territory from Asia and could be carrying exotic diseases, such as rabies.