By Meg Davidson
RIP Stumpy. Sorry, but your nightly feasts on my kōwhai, silverbeet and cabbage seedlings had to stop.
If we hadn’t got an infrared camera, you and your friends probably would have chomped through my entire vege garden by now and would be waiting hungrily for the tasty new leaves and birds’ eggs of spring.
Rob and I live in Kelvin Road and regularly hear the night-time rustle and hissing of possums. We set a Trapinator possum trap (human and effective) but every morning there was nothing but nibbled bait, sometimes with strange grooves. So what was going on?
Open Valley Urban Ecosanctuary Coordinator Clare Cross lent us an infrared camera so we could spy on the wily bait thieves. The camera evidence was jaw-dropping. More than one possum was visiting the trap each night, including an enormous tail-less critter we dubbed Stumpy.
February 20, 2025
Caught on camera in North East Valley — City Sanctuary
maximios city
By Meg Davidson
RIP Stumpy. Sorry, but your nightly feasts on my kōwhai, silverbeet and cabbage seedlings had to stop.
If we hadn’t got an infrared camera, you and your friends probably would have chomped through my entire vege garden by now and would be waiting hungrily for the tasty new leaves and birds’ eggs of spring.
Rob and I live in Kelvin Road and regularly hear the night-time rustle and hissing of possums. We set a Trapinator possum trap (human and effective) but every morning there was nothing but nibbled bait, sometimes with strange grooves. So what was going on?
Open Valley Urban Ecosanctuary Coordinator Clare Cross lent us an infrared camera so we could spy on the wily bait thieves. The camera evidence was jaw-dropping. More than one possum was visiting the trap each night, including an enormous tail-less critter we dubbed Stumpy.