Thread: Do You Have Raccoons in Australia?

Originally Posted by PLD

I just finished scrolling this yesterday. Took me 26+ hours. Used 3/0 Flying Dutchman spiral blades. The pattern is by Charles Dearing.

G'day Paul!
Love your work! Not bad for an ex-turner
Nope no Racoons here in Oz only Wombats. But IMO not as cute as your Racoons.
What was your choice of wood and size?
WOMBAT.jpg

Coons are no more than giant rats.
The real deal is that Australia's iconic wildlife are all marsupial.
Invasive/introduced species are mammals which gives them some measure of
reproductive superiority. Me? I'd want to cull them all.

Insofar as I am personally educated as a PhD biologist
(LaTrobe 72), introduced mammals (rabbits/pigs/foxes/etc) need to be exterminated
as quickly as possible. Feral cats and dogs as well.

That NZ is/was using Huey gunships from VietNam should give you some idea of the extraordinary
problem that deer have loaded on the NZ environment.

Thanks Mulgabill. I used 1/8" Baltic Birch. Stacked 2 pieces together. This was 8.5" X 11" pieces. Sorry I don't know metric well enough to convert in my head. Wish we would convert to metric.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Coons are no more than giant rats.
The real deal is that Australia's iconic wildlife are all marsupial.
Invasive/introduced species are mammals which gives them some measure of
reproductive superiority. Me? I'd want to cull them all.

Insofar as I am personally educated as a PhD biologist
(LaTrobe 72), introduced mammals (rabbits/pigs/foxes/etc) need to be exterminated
as quickly as possible. Feral cats and dogs as well.

That NZ is/was using Huey gunships from VietNam should give you some idea of the extraordinary
problem that deer have loaded on the NZ environment.

Okay Mr. PhD, but how did you like the picture??

By the way, I feel the same way about squirrels! Rats with bushy tails...

Picture is

The closest thing we have to racoons are possums.
They are also cute until they take up residence in your roof space and excrete all over the ceiling.

Possums! Evil demons who will trash your house, eat your garden and screech like the undead all night.

Cute, but with sharp claws and foul temperaments.

I love the art.

Originally Posted by PLD

Thanks Mulgabill. I used 1/8" Baltic Birch. Stacked 2 pieces together. This was 8.5" X 11" pieces. Sorry I don't know metric well enough to convert in my head. Wish we would convert to metric.

Thanks Paul for the info! You did a great job of your "coon"
Whilst I grew up with imperial, in my former working life I had to use metric and now I have trouble with imperial especially when using fractions, which were never my strong suit anyway.

Love the pic of the Wombat. Many fine memories of them fooling around our bush camps in the middle of the night.

I have no tilt against racoons in the North American environment = they have to compete with other mammals.
Mammals are not and never were a part of Australian ecology = they are not needed.
At my house here in the village, the damn deer stand on my door step, crap in my yard and eat everything
except the peonies in the flower beds. Maybe one might have a .270 lead poisoning "accident" really soon.

You might back off on the 'Mr PhD,', it was meant to underscore the 4 wonderful years
that I needed to do that in Melbourne together with some fantastic field/collecting trips for specimens.
Now that I'm retired, nobody gives a sweet rat's patootie what I did for a living. Fine with me.
31 years was a great job, good money and wonderful colleagues (Bio perfesser). Walked out 2005.

In fact, the day/night that the Americans landed on the moon for the first time was a clear, moonlit night
on the last pitch to the hut up Mt Bogong. George (Germany) and Guiseppe (Italy) were my winter ice climbing
partners for all those years. We hacked I don't know how many steps and had a wonderful night's rest.1
Day 2 was a trek to the Cleve Cole hut.

G'Day Paul, A per usual you have put a whole heap of character into your scrollsaw portrait of the Racoon...top job sir.. Cheers, crowie

Personally I'm please not to have them, badgers or squirrels in Australia, we have enough difficulty managing our own "nuisance wildlife"....

Nice work Paul, great subject for scrolling.
I thought Australian possums were the biggest feral animal threat in NZ Robson.
Cheers, Ian

Great work Paul!!!

Every time I have been to the states there have been warning signs about the racoons possibly carrying rabies, so stay away.

Originally Posted by Nanigai

I thought Australian possums were the biggest feral animal threat in NZ Robson.

Yep, they make hats and socks out of them to sell back to us

Who was stupid enough to introduce possums to NZ?

I can only recall my experiences 1969-1972 working out of LaTrobe U.

RV the NZ dept of Conservation says some bright spark wanted to exploit them. I would guess he (or they) was a politician. "The Australian brush tailed possum was introduced into New Zealand in 1837 to establish a fur trade."

Cheers, Ian