Ringtail and river tale
From the Spring 2006 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
The tiny ringtail possum grooms itself after a swim in the river. Photo by Bill Dowling.
A day at the ‘office’ is always interesting for Forests NSW field staff. In this article, Dungog-based ecology supervisor, Bill Dowling, writes about a truly unique experience.
“Just after dusk on a balmy evening in early 2006, I was conducting frog surveys along the Karuah River in Chichester State Forest with ecology assistant, Jessica Giannitsopoulos.
“Sitting on the sandy creek bank, we started call playback (where a recording of frog noises is played to see if it elicits a response from any ‘real’ frogs).
“Our attention was attracted by movement near the river. I expected to see a mountain crayfish but, seeing the animal had fur, I then thought it might be a large bush rat.
“This quickly changed when we saw the animal had a distinct ringtail possum tail and the cutest little face.
“It was a tiny common ringtail possum Pseudocheirus peregrinus, drinking from the river, completely oblivious to us.
“It continued to drink for about two minutes. I was conscious of not scaring the possum into the water, as I had seen large freshwater eels lurking about.
“Imagine our horror when the possum plunged into the river and with a wonderful four-legged movement and its tail acting as rudder, swam upstream for about six metres.
“The ringtail possum then came back to shore, climbed a small tree and promptly fell asleep.
“I’m not sure whether it was the shock of the cold water or exhaustion from the swim that prompted this sudden five minute rest.
“It then woke up, groomed itself to get rid of any remaining moisture, and climbed higher into the tree.
“I was unable to get a photo of the possum swimming, but I did get a shot of it in the tree.
“There was no sign of it again over the next few nights in the area, nor did we see any other ringtail possums.
“There were, however, sooty owls calling in the area and the possum was of a size and age that is nearly always with a parent. Maybe the parents became a meal for an owl.
“I often wonder what happened to our amazing swimming possum.”
Ecology supervisor, Dungog
