Monday, September 05, 2011

The stripey one

Remember the adorable sugar glider? Well a recent post over at the excellent Mammalwatching blog reminded me that there were other beasties afoot that night. Probably the most surprising and impressive was a striped possum.

striped possum2

These guys would be cute enough with plain fur but the striped patterning is simply spectacular. The first I knew of something being around was a large bang on the tin hide roof before it appeared at the top of the tree. Soon it was muscling the gliders out of the way and feasting on the sticky baits left out for them.

striped possum1

This last shot is probably my favourite. It not only shows you the dorsal patterning pretty well but it also shows you the scale difference between possum and glider.


I think the glider maybe edges it on cuteness though.

2 comments:

Jon Hall said...

Very cool. They are usually a hard animal to see let alone photograph. This must be the best spot in the world to see them. Thanks

tai haku said...

Jon - definitely a great spot to see the species. The only caveat I'd have is that (unless John is now seeing multiples) I suspect it may be a single animal - that was certainly the impression I got when I was there (May). As such it may be a single owl/eagle/python snack away from no longer showing. Worth going now if anyone's thinking about it!