Introduced to New Zealand in 1840 for the fur trade, it has become an invasive pest there, devastating to native plants and wildlife.
From Common Brush-tailed Possum
It eats eucalypt leaves, flowers, fruit, insects and occasionally carrion.
From Common Brush-tailed Possum
It lives in woodland, semi-arid country and towns across much of Australia and Tasmania.
From Common Brush-tailed Possum
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.
From Common Spotted Cuscus
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.
From Common Spotted Cuscus
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 Common Phalanger
It is the only possum in which the male takes an active part in raising the young.
From Common Ringtail Possum

Ecosystems