I recently sent an e-mail to an old friend in the UK about a possum which had raided my house over a decade, and been virtually adopted by my kids. He remarked ” I can see the attractions with the rainforest, you probably have a very close relationship with it that would be hard to beat in the developed world.” Well yes. My first ten years were in a big city which is virtually sterile except for pigeons crapping on the statues. Then I moved to a country town (if that is not an oxymoron). There was a variety of birds and a few rabbits and I used to watch little trout staying in place in a fast stream. Now I live in a tropical rainforest bursting with life.
I think I should tell you that it is always beautiful and enriching, but not always convenient. I long ago gave up on growing a vegie garden because of the long list of villains lining up to get a piece of the action before the produce got to a stage I would call ripe. First hurdle would be fungi and insects. There could be a million species of each within a hundred meters of where I plant the first tender seedling. Then there are the birds and animals. Amongst them are some of the most expert burrowers and climbers on the planet. It needs fortifications resembling Fort Knox to keep them out. After a few years of end-to-end disasters, I now get my vegies at the supermarket.
Then there is the issue of home invasion. Yes, not only is there a vast array of critters out there, some of them want to move in with you. I can roughly divide them into two categories. Those that want to raid, and those that want permanent residence.
Those that raid include the possums and Lewin’s Honeyeaters. Sometimes they forget I am there at all as they scrap in a turf war over territory. Those that want to move in include the normal imported rodents, your everyday mice and rats, plus the native species such as melomys which are a protected native species. I can either politely ask them to leave, which hasn’t worked in the past, or I can engage with Parks and Wildlife in two years of paperwork to ‘relocate’ them. Interestingly, I had an invasion in my workshop. I went to change speeds in my pillar drill and found a nest and a pygmy possum staring at me with its rather pop-out eyes. It is about the size of a mouse but with an extraordinarily long tail. I gently closed the cover and decided the Black and Decker could do the job.
A couple of days ago I passed an unused bedroom and spotted 2 slender long turds on the bed. A little tentative prodding in the dust pan revealed they were mostly feathers. Confirmation of the suspect was found on top of the cupboards. More turds and a 2m long snake skin. Almost certainly from a red-bellied black snake. It is the most common snake round here and by Australian standards only mildly venomous. If bitten, you’d be out of hospital in a couple of weeks and regained most of your organ’s capacity in a couple years. The good news is that they have about the same desire to seek my company as I have to seek theirs.
I share my bedroom with a bat. In the tropics it is normal to leave windows open. The bat will have a permanent roost cave, but seeks a temporary roost cave for rests during its foraging at night. My bedroom and the entrance corridor serve that purpose. As it flies around my bedroom it makes a sound rather like flapping a tea-towel. Fortunately, it hangs in the corner of the room and not above the bed. For those biologically interested, I can report that bat poo is very much like mouse poo , but twisted and bent.
Then there are occasional invasions like from cicadas. This is a huge and beautiful insect seemingly designed to make noise. Rather similar to a chainsaw in your living room. So many decibels from such a small creature.
Recently, the world passed a milestone where more than half the population now lives in cities. A denuded and almost sterile environment. Except for microbes and viruses of course, as they can’t be excluded from any environment. I accept these minor inconveniences caused me by my fellow critters, all trying to earn a living as I am doing.
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