Treeshrew Prayers Answered

What does a treeshrew pray for? More bananas perhaps.

We share our garden with whatever wildlife finds it. It's not quite true to say that they were here first as when we arrived and built a house the land was an unused ricefield with not much interest for wildlife beyond the rough pickings of rough grass. But going back further in time it is, of course, absolutely true that they were here first and deserve to be given some space to live. In this sense we are stewards not owners of the land.

So the birds, insects, squirrels, bats and treeshrews are welcome to some of the dozen or more different types of fruit that we grow. Just not all of it, please! Fifty-fifty seems okay to me.

It's hard to predict exactly when a banana plant will produce its single crop of bananas so sometimes we have far more than we can eat, give to neighbours or dry for storage, so sometimes I leave a bunch hanging where it grows and let the wildlife have at it. This brings its own pleasure of having diverse wildlife living in the same space that I occupy for much of my time. Proximity to such wildlife was always key to me but is even more important now having spent over a decade living in Bangkok.

But even if we do not have a glut of fruit we are relaxed about letting the animals have a share and I will always toss at least a few bananas their way.

In the case of these photographs, strong winds had caused the top of the banana plant to collapse before the bananas were fully grown. They never reached full size but still ripened so I left them for the wildlife. This plant was just outside our kitchen window giving me some great views of whatever came to feast on them. When I took these photos half of them had already gone.

Treeshrews are probably my favourite visitors with their nervous bouncy character and those surprisingly human ears.