Species group · Mammals
WAnimals has 4 species of possum, spread across 2 families (Phalangeridae, Pseudocheiridae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 6 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
Introduced to New Zealand in 1840 for the fur trade, it has become an invasive pest there, devastating to native plants and wildlife.
It eats eucalypt leaves, flowers, fruit, insects and occasionally carrion.
It lives in woodland, semi-arid country and towns across much of Australia and Tasmania.
Only the males are spotted: the females are a uniform colour, and the irregular blotching of the males is so variable that no two are alike.
It moves so slowly that the peoples of New Guinea catch it by hand simply by climbing the tree, and that ease of capture, together with its prized meat, has caused it to disappear from the more populated areas.
It is among the first animals humans deliberately carried between islands: archaeological remains show that Pacific peoples were taking it from one island to another more than 10,000 years ago, long before livestock farming.
From Common Phalanger
It moves so slowly and so deliberately that it is often compared with a sloth, although the two are unrelated: it is a marsupial and they are South American placentals.
From
It is the only possum in which the male takes an active part in raising the young.
From