In the Lizard-Rat-Snake turf-war in my roof (local version of Scissors-Paper-Stone) there has been another offensive, it seems, with a new player: Asian giant squirrels. Here’s the background:

When I first got back from months away, the corner behind the food storage area was an especially vile toilet-land, but it’s OK now. At the time though, evidence suggested something way bigger than lizards were in residence.

Neighbours reported that gangs of thugster squirrels were tromping all over my roof, for those months, constantly in and out of the roof and loft space.
For European and North American friends, a squirrel here is not a tiny cute thing. It is four or five times any version of cuteness, and they have big vicious front teeth. Mr Landlord hates them, calls them destructive.

The photo here is not exactly our type, but close.

It’s true that they are vandals. They don’t eat steal and eat a whole piece of fruit, for example, which is the usual. They take one chunk out of each piece of fruit on a tree, and leave it there, mangled and molested.

(Oddly, peacocks eat this way too – they even trample things without eating anything. Just vandalism.)

I trust Mr L’s judgement. He’s an expert. These things act like aggressive bullies, trampling with a sound like horses across the roof. I wouldn’t want those nasty front teeth angry at me.
Oh, I hoped they didn’t oust the peaceful, mosquito-eating, singing tokay lizards!
The Thugster Squirrel Gang, on my return to now-contested turf, may not have wanted to share the place with me. They thundered over the roof, harshly, for a few days, but then it went peaceful.

And tidy.

And lo and behold, there appeared a tokay, my latest lizard housemate.

There has been a ceasefire. I hope there has also been a long-range peace treaty.

I will be watching this space, to be sure.

Photo credit
By JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16627476