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I have a couple of small animals running around in a tree next to my house... I haven't managed to capture them with my camera yet, but I'm just interested as to what they might be...

From the glances that I've caught of them, they appear to be either large mice or a small marsupial... Grey in colour and 10-15cm long with long thin tails and they scamper around in the tree and on my fence at a great pace...

Any ideas????

Ring-tail possums?

Elvis's Caddilac?

sounds like the rare cheshirious malcatious to me....

Hey... serious suggestions only (Rel - where are you???)

Ring tailed possums are bigger than that aren't they? These are tiny...

sorry...

Rats

No... we don't have rats in Lane Cove

I know exactly what you are talking about John. When I lived in Lane Cove I saw the same animal in the trees at the back of my house. They are most certainly not possums or rats.

I too would be interested in what they may be.

Bandicoot!
Different species in different parts of Australia.
May come in brown or grey colours.

Major pain in the backside tick carriers - drop ticks in your yard at night for the family pet to pick up next day.

Edit:

Here is a national parks and wildlife website that has pics and description...

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npw ... Bandicoots

Bandicoots are more of a ground dweller, they specialise in digging up grubs and stuff in your lawns.. hence the damn ticks..

Ringtail possums are Small.. weigh about 280grams i think if i can remember correctly, grey in colouring with a hairless tail to give them grip..

Tim

I've had a look at the ring-tailed possum pics on the web and I don't think that's what I'm dealing with... While it's probably slightly smaller than a bandicoot, I don't think that they are likely to be scampering around in a tree...
It's really more like the size of a mouse, but I don't know of any mice that climb around in trees either...

Mystified...

I'll try to capture an image of one of them, but I wish myself luck... they move so fast...

It's not a rat, it's a Lane Cove Hamster!

thaddeus wrote:It's not a rat, it's a Lane Cove Hamster!

That's a possibility... and definitely more acceptable than a rat...

I've seen Antechinus, which is a Marsupial Mouse. However I've only seen them on the ground, so not sure if they could/do climb trees.

I've seen them with small belts on. They had tiny spiked shoes , little rolls of rope and climbing accoutrements. One had a walkie talkie. The others appeared to have satellite phones. Probably Iridium based ones. They had little lights on their helmets. They scampered up and down the trees like it was something they were born to do *


*This was on the night that I was apparently also drinking vodka with my orange juice.
Your mileage my vary.

John, sorry, didn't see your post till just now.
I'm with Chris - probably Antechinus or even Melomys (native rat)? Are you in the burbs or outside in a more 'rural' area? If its antechinus - they are quite often arboreal (up trees) and will den in hollows in trees. They feed on small inverts and are carnivorous. Should have a very pointy nose, and a tapering head and big ears.... there is a decent shot of an antechinus here:

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgu ... D%26sa%3DN

Gotta go - we are putting out traps this afternoon, but will check back tonight with some more info

Lucky you!!!!!

Rel

blacknstormy wrote:John, sorry, didn't see your post till just now.
I'm with Chris - probably Antechinus or even Melomys (native rat)? Are you in the burbs or outside in a more 'rural' area? If its antechinus - they are quite often arboreal (up trees) and will den in hollows in trees. They feed on small inverts and are carnivorous. Should have a very pointy nose, and a tapering head and big ears.... there is a decent shot of an antechinus here:

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgu ... D%26sa%3DN

Gotta go - we are putting out traps this afternoon, but will check back tonight with some more info

Lucky you!!!!!

Rel

Yep... that looks like it might be the one, but I only caught a fleeting glimpse of them... There were about 2 or 3 running around in the tree last night... I'll stake it out tonight and see if I can get a shot of them... We live in the 'burbs, but we get a lot of wildlife in the garden... The tree in question is right next to a raised deck, so they are at my level when running around in the tree... the tree is also hollow in places...

Hey, Rocky.

Watch me pull an Antechinus out of my hat!

They look like the sort of thing Vivaldi and Gigi catch for my photographic specimens.

John - you will need to use a repeating strobe flash to capture one of those little buggers - they are faster than a speeding train