I went on a lovely hike over the weekend. A friend and I hiked down at Wilsons Prom and visited the lighthouse. What struck me about the weekend, other than the obvious beauty of the surrounds, was the local wildlife.

Whilst sitting down and preparing dinner I happened to get the fright of my life. As it was dusk and starting to get dark I did not notice a Possum creep up and steal the bag of fruit cake sitting less than 10cm from my leg until it was scurrying away. After I shot up and chased it it dropped the bag of fruitcake. The possum was so brazen that it continued to try and sneak back to steal more food. After waking at midnight to the sounds of the possum trying to get into our packs we had to put the packs into the tent with us for the rest of the night.

The next morning we hiked down to the lighthouse. We left our packs at a track junction leaning against a rock. Upon our return we found that a crow (or perhaps a group of them) had unzipped the top pocket of my pack and picked out each plastic ziplock bag to find food. The contents of my pack were strewn across the ground.

Now one reason I love hiking is to get out in nature and see it in its natural state. Instead of seeing a possum running up a tree truck and eating possumy food I spent my evening chasing the possum away from my human food. Instead of being able to leave my pack safely at a track junction it was attacked by a couple of crows. Those animals were in their home, their natural environment. But because of their interactions with humans they have adapted. That possum knows that it can feed off the rubbish that has been left behind by other hikers. This has then led it to try and eat the food sitting within my arms reach while I cook dinner. The crows have learnt that the track junction is a good place to hang out because of the custom amongst hikers to leave their packs there.

It got me thinking about how we are all changed by our interactions. We are shaped, both positively and negatively, by our interactions with others. Sometimes we are influenced to be lazy and to seek the easy option, like the human food. Other times we are influenced to work together to achieve a common goal. (Did you know that crows can work together to open bottles, one holds the bottle while the other unscrews the lid.)

See, we can all learn a lot from hiking!