Herewith the evidence for the prosecution M’Lord…
Big Daddy Coypu chewing the fence and making ingress yesterday evening…
This looks to be sound evidence. He was back again just before 4AM. I think he “plops” into the river, floats downstream and then returns to his rounds. He has made several holes. To the right you can see small logs blocking his previous forays.
Time for boiling oil from the parapets or greased lightning.
….It’s electrifying…
It has been raining for a long time and the level of Le Jaudy is elevated. Turn up the sound to get an idea of how even a small river is a force of nature.
Le Jaudy in flood 08-01-2024.
This means that I have turned off the electric fence. If the level rises much more it will get shorted.
It also means that we have a deer trapped at the end of the garden by the river on one side and the fence on others. It was trying to high jump without success. I have come indoors so as to reduce its anxiety levels. Maybe with a calmer head it will figure it out…
I have seen them jump the fence before.
Over the last few days, the river has been in flood and flowing very quickly. Previously we have had no Coypu visits when it has been like that. So, I put the trail cam outside my office to confirm the re-appearance of the new hefty tom cat. Sure enough, he visited and sniffed the pissing tree during the night. He is probably not feral as he looks very well fed.
This morning, I inspected the electric fence in the corner of the property. The fence had been interfered with and some of the wires had slipped their guides.
Here is what a big Coypu does when it gets shocked {from February last year}. Turn up the volume. You can see an earthing spark in the infrared images.
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As you can see the Coypu jumps, grunts and disturbs the fence. I am reasonably sure that something got shocked last night. BUT the witness sticks at two point of ingress into the pond were untouched.
So, I have repositioned the camera for tonight and placed witness sticks at all the points of entry into the pond.
Perhaps we have deterrence, perhaps not.
Maybe I can put some antipigeon spikes on the wall to the right in the video above, down by the river… if the blighters are accepting the shock for a nice midnight snack….
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Earlier this year, in February, I put up a three strand electric fence to try to deter the Coypu coming onto the property and eating all the lotuses on the pond. It worked.
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This year we had a magnificent display of flowers and no Coypu turds. The availability of fresh shoots in the wild has dropped as we come further into winter. They managed to find a way in by the bridge in October. Here are four of the blighters I blocked this off with wire mesh at end of October.
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So, we have had no Coypu sign until about a week ago. I found some chewed iris shoots. I set up the trail camera and got one returning to the river hesitantly through the electric fence. I did not see it get shocked but I heard the audible click as 0.25 J earthed at kilo Volts through the Coypu. The animal seemed to be coming from another direction. I set up witness sticks on the river bank and by a hole in the fence. The little bugger was coming through the fence. I blocked it last night with one big and one medium sized pine fire logs. He shifted the smaller log last night. I saw some Coypu sign, damaged iris shoots. There are two fairly hefty fire logs there now.
Yesterday evening when checking the fence I came upon an electrocuted toad. For an animal ~50-100g I guess 0.25 J is too much. I am surprised that it was on the move. We have had an inordinately mild time of it. In general, we get up to 60 toads and frogs at any one time in the pond for mating. I wondered if the annual migration is beginning early.
Today I have put a few more posts up near the old ingress route for the Coypu and lifted the bottom wire so that at no point is it less than 6cm from the ground. That should be enough room for the amphibians but not enough for the Coypu…
We shall soon see if the toad migration proper is beginning early.
Another harbinger of anthropogenic planetary warming?
Dreamyoga 