| Common name | Brushtail possum |
| Scientific name | Trichosurus vulpecula |
| Type | Mammal |
| Diet | Mostly leaves, fruits and flowers; sometimes insects, eggs and carrion |
| Average lifespan | Up to 7 years |
| Size | Reaches about 58cm in length, including a tail of up to 35cm, and 4.5kg in weight |
Growing to about the size of a domestic cat, this is the largest of Australia’s possum and glider species and probably the best-known. It has the widest distribution of any native Australian mammal, occurring right across mainland Australia, Tasmania and on many offshore islands around the continent.
The brushtail is arboreal and nocturnal: it lives in trees, rarely coming to the ground, and forages throughout the night. It’s a solitary animal that lives alone, except for mothers with babies, and by day curls up and hides away in a den, which is usually in a tree hollow.
The species occurs in a wide range of natural habitats, from rainforest and arid zone woodlands to both wet and dry eucalypt forests. But it’s also a highly adaptable mammal and survives well in disturbed landscapes in and around Australia’s cities and towns, where it’s found in parks and backyards with a lot of trees. Brushtail possums have even been known to move into and live in the roofs of people’s homes.
Brushtails were introduced to New Zealand in the mid-1800s to support a fur industry and adjusted so well to life there that their population grew enormously and the species spread right across the country. It’s now become widely hated as one of New Zealand’s worst feral pests.
A female brushtail possum gives birth to usually just one baby at a time and very occasionally twins. Like all marsupial babies, brushtails are born tiny, furless and extremely underdeveloped: they need to live for their first months entirely within their mother’s pouch. A brushtail joey usually ventures out of the pouch for the first time at about 4 months of age. In about another month it’s ready to live permanently outside the pouch.
