A smart new winter garden predator

 

I have ripe oranges on the tree.  Something is stealing and eating them.
Four fruit have been taken off the tree and left a few metres away.  Each
has a neat round hole cut in the side about 5cm across, the small bits of
skin were left scattered about. The predator has then neatly eaten all the
flesh of the orange leaving an empty skin with a hole in it.  No bird or
animal has been sighted nearby. There are no identifiable bite marks
anywhere to give away the culprit.

The bats have left for warmer latitudes and in any case they cannot eat on
the ground.

A mouse couldn't move the whole fruit and wouldn't need a hole that big.

There are no stray gouges from  teeth marks that rats so often leave when
they eat something sizeable so if it is a rat it is the neatest one ever
seen who was very focussed on getting to the flesh while chewing the least
amount of skin.

Rabbits would go for all manner of other things in the garden before oranges
and there are no droppings.

I am thinking it is a possum.

Any views?

David

 

David Hare-Scott wrote:

Possum - they have got all my grapefruit, the b+++++s got most of the plums and
apples too
--
Anne Chambers
South Australia

anne dot chambers at bigpond dot com

 



I live in North Queensland. I have possums living in my shed. They run
across the roof at night. They sound like a herd of elephants having an
orgy. I have oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and mandarins. I have never seen
any fruit eaten in such a way. Now cockatoos, flying foxes, and parrots -
they are my enemies.
Cheers,
Dan

 

 Dan wrote:

There is nothing else fruiting here right now so they cannot be too picky.

David

 

Anne Chambers wrote:

The beggars got another 6 last night so I pulled the oranges, tangelos and
mandarins.  We will see if they eat cumquats or lemons.

David