‘Mystery Tree’ update – the plot thickens

Mystery animal

The mysterious incisions on the young Long-leaf Box that were pictured in an earlier post (click HERE) remain a mystery. On the 12/12/12 around midnight, the movement camera set up by our animal detectives from Focus on Fauna caught something. Opinion still remains divided. The picture portrays a ghostly image of something moving at speed, having leapt from the ground onto the tree trunk. It is hard to say what it is, but there seems to be a body and long tail mostly hidden behind the tree trunk. It looks too big for a Sugar Glider. It may be a Brush-tailed Possum.

The camera takes 5 shots every 2 seconds, so whatever it was went up the tree so fast it was only recorded in 1 shot.
Here’s where the plot thickens: no shots were taken of the animal coming back down. Possums don’t fly, but Yellow-bellied Gliders do!
I for one am hoping that our animal detectives can answer this mystery when they reposition their camera and try again to spot this elusive animal.

As this item goes to press, the latest photo has just come in from our mystery tree. Still inconclusive, but the Focus on Fauna team are calling it a Sugar Glider. One theory advanced is that the incisions were made by a flock of cockatoos, and gliders have since taken advantage of the sap flow as a food source.