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[OM] Re: Rethinking the Tree Rodent

Subject: [OM] Re: Rethinking the Tree Rodent
From: Andrew Fildes <afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 08:02:26 +1000
Many animals are nominally vegetarian but actually opportunistic.  
Parrots for instance enjoy a little meat which is provided in the  
wild by grubs in the bark of trees - our pet Indian Ringneck gets a  
chicken bone to strip clean a couple of times a week and relishes it.  
I was told of a Brushtail Possum being seen to kill and eat a night  
roosting bird only this week by the witness - behaviour I haven't  
seen here before although I believe the pest population in NZ are  
cheerful converts to  carnivory. Rats and mice will take meat based  
dry dog food with alacrity and like dry meat. Amphibians are  
carnivores in the adult stage - insects count as animal! Big frogs  
and toads will take anything that fits.
Textbooks are often incorrect - you can tell. The more definite they  
are, the less accurate they are. I once stood in a kitchen on a  
remote island, reading a entry on Bettongs, a rabbit-sized 'wallaby'  
if you will. The book, a new and authoritative text on the mammals of  
South Eastern Australia assured me that they ate exclusively fungii  
which they dug up under bushes and that they were very shy and  
avoided people. Unfortunately, a wild one was standing on my foot at  
the time and had just stolen the dinner scraps from the rubbish bin -  
clearly he couldn't read and had reclassified pea soup and potatoes  
as 'fungus'. He wasn't tame either - they had no reason to fear us  
and we just couldn't keep the little buggers out of the house.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



On 24/05/2006, at 1:55 AM, Geilfuss Charles wrote:

>       Well there are rodents and then there are rodents. I wouldn't be
> at all surprised to see rats & mice eating meat. Hell, they will  
> eat or
> eat through anything. To my knowledge, Cavies (Guinea Pigs) are strict
> vegetarians but then again I would have guessed the same of Gray
> Squirrels. Wayne's little friend proves the exception. The one thing I
> have learned as a long time observer of wildlife...Mother Nature will
> fool you and she doesn't read the text books.
>       Side note: My father-in-law has a koi pond in his back yard. A
> large bullfrog set up residence there and he frequently saw the big
> amphibian sitting beside the water. One day he noticed the frog  
> sitting
> on a rock for hours which was unusual. He went to investigate and  
> as he
> got closer could see a sparrows legs sticking out of the frogs mouth.
> Both were dead. Bit off mare than he could chew.



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