Possums: Tails of the unexpected

Ok it’s a bit odd, but I have an almost unnatural affection for possums.  This was magnified when my partner volunteered to be a carer with Sydney Wildlife (the rescue organisation). We’d have these tiny creatures dotted around the house in various stages of rehabilitation- some injured, some orphaned. All looking sweet and helpless. Once you’ve cradled one of these little bundles in the palm of your hand and drip-fed it a special food formula with a syringe… you kind of melt.

So yes, I admit it… I love Possums. To me they represent an endearing resilience, an amazing capacity to survive urbanisation, against all odds. In Sydney’s “Northern Beaches” area, we have three types of possum; the “Brushtail”, which prefers to live in tree hollows formed by mature eucalypts, the smaller “Ringtail”, which generally builds its own nest (called a drey) out of twigs and leaves and the extra tiny (and endangered) Eastern Pygmy Possum, listed as “vulnerable” in NSW. 

A small number of Eastern Pygmy Possums exist naturally in remnant areas of bushland and a population has actually been re-introduced to North Head (from the Central Coast) by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. These marsupials have an amazing claim to fame in that they curiously hold the world record for mammal hibernation- longer even than the Grizzly Bear of North America! When food is short, they can spend an entire year in a deep torpor!

Possums are vestiges of the incredible rich diversity of wildlife that lived in Sydney’s environs prior to European colonisation. A fascinating glimpse of what once existed can be found in the Natural History Museum’s First Fleet Artwork Collection (Port Jackson Paintings, Flora and fauna).  Here we can see long lost inhabitants such as the Potoroo, Dingo, Yellow Bellied Glider, Marsupial Mice, Emu and the now totally extinct White Footed Tree Rat.

Even until fairly recently we still had small populations of Platypus and Koalas on the Northern Beaches that eventually couldn’t cope with city living any longer and gradually disappeared.  

Miraculously, Possums are still here, as a living reminder of our wilder past, despite being vilified by some (perhaps there’s a fur envy thing going on?) Possums, being nocturnal, are active at night, which accounts for their protruding eyes and shy disposition. If a possum is using your roof for shelter (as most of the old habitat trees with hollows have been cut down) why not provide them with a Possum Box as an alternative? They are available on-line – as are DIY instructions.

The greatest enemies of the Possum are the cat and the car. So please, drive carefully and keep your pet in at night. The average domestic cat kills 25 native animals a year and even if a captured possum seems unharmed, it is likely to die within 36 hours from shock or from toxins carried in the cat’s saliva.