Possums are highly territorial creatures. What can you do with the possum in your roof? Possums are also at risk from the removal of habitat due to human development. Two possum babies usually stay in their mums pouch until they’re four months old, after which they ride around on mums back for about 11 months.īrushtail and Ringtail Possums are at risk from cats, dogs, foxes, traffic, and also electrocution from powerlines, cables and transformers. Ringtail Possums breed from April to November. They are not as noisy as Brushtail Possums, though they sometimes makes soft, high-pitched twittering calls. Ringtails are sociable and can have overlapping home territories with other Ringtail Possums. In the north, Ringtails sleep in tree hollows and rarely build dreys. Dreys are usually 2 to 4 metres off the ground, up in trees. Unlike the Brushtail, in the south of Australia the Ringtail Possum builds a nest out of sticks, grass and back called a drey. They will sometimes develop a taste for flowers in your garden!
Ringtails eat mostly leaves, including Eucalyptus leaves, and some flowers. This possum can grip branches with its tail and even carry nesting material with it. It is prehensile, meaning it can grip like another hand. Ringtail Possums get their name from their long, tapering tail. It is usually grey-brown in colour with red flanks, white underparts and white spots behind its ears. The Ringtail has smaller ears than the Brushtail. They live along the east coast of Australia in Queensland, New South Wales, Canberra, most of Victoria, Tasmania and the south-west of Western Australia.
Ringtail Possums ( Pseudocheirus peregrinus) are less common than Brushtails and a bit smaller in size. They usually have one baby which lives in its mothers pouch for 4-5 months, and disperses from its mothers home range at 6 to 18 months old. Male possums have a territory of about 2.8 hectares when living in close proximity with people, and females need about 1.9 hectares.īrushtail Possums mainly breed in autumn, or spring but can breed at any time if there is enough food. Brushtails eat leaves, flowers, fruits and occasionally meat and small invertebrates.Ī Brushtail Possum is highly territorial and can be noisy when defending its home territory. They have pointed ears like a cat and are about the size of a big cat. They live along the east coast of Australia, in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Canberra, Tasmania, the south-east corner of South Australia, in central Australia including southern Northern Territory and along the south west coast of Western Australia.īrushtails vary in colour throughout their range, from a copper colour in northern Queensland to a grey or even blackish colouration in the southern states.īrushtails get their name from their dark, thick, bushy tail. Common possumsīrushtail Possums ( Trichosurus vulpecula) are commonly seen in urban areas and heard scampering over the roof at night. Once tree hollows are gone, they cannot be naturally replaced for a long time until new hollows develop in other or newer trees.ĭue to the lack of adequate tree hollows, possums move into our roofs through holes and establish homes for themselves inside where it is safe and dark. As land has been cleared for dwellings, development and farming, the number of available hollows has sharply declined. It takes anywhere from one hundred years or more for tree hollows to form in Eucalypt trees. During the day they sleep in tree hollows or in the case of Ringtails in southern Australia, dreys up to 4 metres in a tree.
Possums are tree dwelling animals that are active at night. Do you have a possum scampering over your roof at night? Or is a possum making loud noises near your bedroom window? Or does a possum live in your roof? Learn what you can do to live happily with your neighbourhood possums.
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