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Courtesy of my conservation biology class: The United States has 5% of the world’s population, but uses 25% of its resources.

Last night I went to a marsupial reserve to conduct some trapping and surveying! Unfortunately I am not allowed to photograph animals which are being handled or caught in traps and post these on social media due to welfare reasons, so these are the only photos I have from the night. We caught many quendas (southern brown bandicoots, pictured above) as well as a large possum with a joey on her back. The quendas were measured and tagged before being released and the possum family was simply recorded and released to minimise the stress on the mother and young. We also saw a number of kangaroos, as well as a goanna with its tail and hind limbs poking out from a burrow (also pictured above). I also was fortunate enough to receive a visit from a tiny fat slug! The quenda which I handled was incredibly active and quite aggressive at first, nearly tearing the handling bag off the cage as it tried to escape. It made taking measurements quite difficult, but when it came time to release him, he preferred to snuggle down in my lap and receive some strokes and back scratches. I named him Crash and it took some effort to get him back in the bush after this bandicoot with an attitude decided he liked the warmth of my arms and the darkness of the handling bag!