'Possum War' echoes an age-old conflict

Victoria, 'the Garden State', is fast becoming the Possum State and the human population is increasingly divided about the small furry denizens of suburbia.

Some inner-city residents are enraged by noisy possums damaging elms, decimating exotic flowering trees, shrubs and roses, and living in their roofs, while others - including international travellers - adore and feed them.

Today's debate about 'the possum problem' echoes colonial debates about 'the Tasmanian tiger problem' and 'the dingo problem'. In the 1930s, one of the last hunters of Tasmanian tigers said: ''Why did you want to go and protect them bloody useless things?"

We're not alone. Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand is arguably reaping karma for importing brushtail possums for food and fur between 1837 and 1959. Now the possums are eating New Zealand!

The brushtail population in New Zealand reached an estimated 48 million in the 1980s before control measures reduced them to around 30 million, still seven times the human population, according to a 2009 survey by Landcare Research.

Taxonomy fails - the infamous 'Cat Found' poster

Across the Internet, people have been finding cats. But these 'cats' are not cats of the Felis catus variety, but various cases of mistaken identity by the hapless do-gooding animal lovers seeking to re-home their charges. Or so this popular joke would have you believe!

Many Australians have already either seen the above posters pop up in their inboxes among their daily stream of joke emails, or spotted the images plastered on posters attached to electricity poles and traffic lights.

In the past few years the 'Cat Found' posters have become something of a phenomenon, popping up all over the world with variations on the theme.

The posters above show a native Australian possum, with the posters below show the North American Opossum. The picture at the bottom shows an English badger, and popped up in this post over at CFZ UK courtesy of Simon Reames this week.

We know some people who have had the distinct displeasure of having real possums fall down their chimneys or enter their homes via the roof space, and can vouch for the 'not house broken' line. To quote one 'experiencer': "I've never seen so much shit and piss in my life - it literally covered three bedrooms and the hallway. It must have been there for days but my housemate swore it had only been trapped inside for a few hours."

Lest you feel compelled to answer one of these appeals, you have been warned! :-)

What is the Coffs Harbour Critter?

Yes, it's another bloated corpse of some poor unfortunate animal, but this time washed up on an Australian beach - Diggers Beach, near Coffs Harbour, NSW, to be exact.

Dubbed Australia's own 'Montauk Monster, the animal, roughly two foot long, was found by surfers on Father’s Day, who took a photo of the carcass with a mobile phone.

What the heck is it? Guesses? Monkey? Sloth? Or something with a more local flavour?

We think it looks suspiciously like a balding possum, the hair loss attributed to possible dermatitis or burns/scarring from a bushfire, and the folks at National Parks and Wildlife seem to agree...but all is not lost!

It's thought this black-furred brushtail possum is actually a rare black colour morph (the body is also black), still making it rather special.

http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/story/2010/11/10/creature-coffs-diggers-beach/

And this is how our little friend most likely looked when he was alive (Photo by Greg Schechter, Flickr):

And here's the most common colour variant for a brushtail possum, silvery grey with a dark tail. Possums also come in brown, black as mentioned, and gold. The silvery grey variant is a common sight in many Australian suburban backyards: