If you’ve ever been so close you could touch a wild marsupial, chances are that it was a brush-tailed possum.
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These furballs of fluff may look cute and cuddly but they tough it out in the hood with cats, dogs and wild children.
Eating foliage from trees and occasionally fruit from the bin, they are adaptable and make successful city slickers.
Of course, they breed them tough from the beginning. Imagine being born undeveloped, blind and legless. Your first task is to climb on your own, up a giant hairy stomach to get to a pouch and only then can you take a drink.
If that sounds like your last Saturday night, then you’ll be familiar with the challenge faced by new-born possums. I think anyone would have some sass if that was their start in life.
If you’ve ever donned a possum hat, you’ll know the fur is soft and warm. They were even introduced in New Zealand to boost the fur industry in the ‘50s but soon became an agricultural pest.
Their bold, inquisitive nature makes them a spectacular species for people to experience wildlife up close.
Males are territorial and like all testosterone-filled meat-heads, you’ll usually hear when they are around. The familiar hissing of bloke possums, doing bloke stuff is a backdrop for most suburban homes in Australia. They will occupy territories, which they mark with scent glands on their chest.
Possums are easy to spot by eye-shine at night. With a torch held close to your eyes, their big bright eyes shine red in the reflection. Their tail is prehensile, helping them to balance in the trees in which they spend most of their time.
They turn up at most camp sites, mooching off the scraps and providing an all-Aussie experience for anyone who visits.
There are 27 species of possum in Australia, none so widely distributed and common as the brushtails.
Many of the other species live in north Queensland rainforest where climate change is rapidly threatening their existence. Encouraging governments to tackle climate change is the obvious way to help our remote possums.
Possums are important dispersers of plants and provide a food source for other animals such as powerful owls and carpet pythons.
Their bold, inquisitive nature makes them a spectacular species for people to experience wildlife up close.
In some areas, they are decreasing so if you want to help our little Aussie battler, you can buy a possum nesting box and put it in a tree in the garden and then enjoy watching these clever little critters do life.
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