Rare footage of endangered possum

Last week Trent, a Flowerdale resident and passionate campaigner against logging of threatened species habitat, took us on a tour of some of his favourite spots in the Mountain Ash forests near Toolangi. After walking through some wonderful tree-fern gullies, we quietly settled ourselves in near a large dead tree trunk (stag) just on dusk. It was not long before a Mountain Brushtail Possum was revealed by Trent’s head-torch, clinging to a hollow spout near the top of the stag. Almost immediately a rustling of branches alerted us to a Common Ringtail Possum right above us. Then, a short while later, Trent’s excited whisper indicated what we had hoped for, but not really expected – a Leadbeater’s Possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) in the glow of our torches, leaping and scampering through the tangled undergrowth.

Trent was able to record this rare sighting in the video below. [This is quite a large file, but is well worth a look – you may need to stop the video and let it it load before playing right through.]
 
 

 
This amazing little possum shares the role of Victoria’s faunal emblem with the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater and is the State’s only endemic mammal. Its numbers have declined drastically in recent years, particularly after the Black Saturday fires. Conservationists and wildlife researchers warn that the Leadbeater’s Possum is being pushed towards extinction by the loss of suitable habitat containing large hollow-bearing trees vital for nesting – a situation exacerbated by fire and by logging within its limited range in the Central Highlands. Being unable to glide, the Leadbeater’s Possum needs a dense interwoven understorey to facilitate travel by running, leaping and climbing, as seen in the video.