The Mystery of the Banana Thief

Last year around September, I noticed that if I left my bananas in the fruit bowl that some of them looked like they had been split open but on closer examination I realised that they had been very neatly eaten along the seam of each banana. I would forget about it and then put the next bunch of bananas in the bowl again and remember about it until it was too late. I then decided to put the bananas on top of the fridge but I found them on the floor the next morning- again very neatly eaten. My next ploy was to wrap them in a plastic bag and leave them up high on top of the fridge but the bag was opened and the bananas eaten! Was it an animal living in my house or coming in from outside? My windows are slats and are often wide open so to close them each night became the new course of action to avoid midnight visitors. It wasn't a monkey as they would surely peel the banana and eat the whole thing and the slats were too small so I deduced that it must be a rodent of some sort. (I know the detective work involved is impressive!)

My lovely local beach and the horses

I then went away on holiday and came back to a house that had lots of evidence of kecko pooh but no sign of rodent activity so I thought that the thief had disappeared - if it was a rodent. I bought my bananas as usual on the first Sunday market and put them in my fruit bowl. The first day I checked and every banana was intact, the second and third day were the same and I breathed a sigh of relief that the Banana Thief had gone, then the fourth day I found that one little banana had been very neatly eaten. The Banana Thief had struck again!

Flooding at schools this week

What I need is a camera trap to identify the Banana Thief. It is most likely to be a squirrel (and there are at least 30 species of squirrels in Borneo) who just goes wild for bananas and the other possibilities are moon rats, shrews, mice, rats.There are many possibilities and I welcome any suggestions from anyone but in the meantime I am keeping my bananas inside the fridge!

ps- for some reason my photos aren't loading so these are from my phone and previous blogs