In article , Flying Tadpole
wrote:

Peter Wiley wrote:

Ah, memories of trapping Rattus fuscipes in the national parks north of
Sydney and various animals round Smiths Lake. We got a possum in a big
trap one night. It wasn't happy.

Another time we fooled a kookaburra into swooping on a rubber snake and
trying to beat it to death on its tree.

My first degree had a major in population ecology. I picked all the
courses with good field trips.

Rattus fuscipes was the furry friendly one. It was Rattus
lutreolus that was the snakey sod.

I didn't get my claws into students until 2nd year, but they had
to do a natural resources equivalent to farm practice in first
year. I set them keeping tabs on the Roseworthy possums, to get
rid of harry Butler ideas (yes, that long ago) and discover that
happy furry cuddly native animals were lethal hateful spitting
beasts with five razor blades on each hand and every one aimed at
you.

Those students obviously didn't grow up in the country. Possums have 2
uses - dog food & rugs for the bed. I did admire the ones at Sydney Uni
tho - they used to feed from the bins with complete insouciance. One of
the few native marsupials which have made a (all too) successful
adaptation to the suburbs.

ALso spent many happy hours marching them through mangrove
mud, and teaching them basic power- and row-boat safety
(mandatory a.s.asa content)

No mangroves in SA are there? Thought their geographic range was less
than that. Certainly none in Tas. Mangroves are fun. Smelly, but
interesting places. Was barra fishing in the Wessel Islands one time in
a creek running thru mangroves and one of the guys spotted a croc. 4
people did a standing leap from the water into the dinghy in an
ohnosecond. It wasn't very big but who knew where its mummy was....

We used to run sediment profiles offshore & up beaches, along with
drift studies and the like. Anything to get out of sitting in lecture
theatres.

ANd yes, I had students like you. The main issue was not the
rubber goods but the bongs.

You wouldn't have lasted with our lot. Someone would have put a possum
in your tent, or worse. Field trips involved mandatory drinking every
night followed by crack of dawn trap runs to let the critters out, then
breakfast.

PDW