Common Brushtail Possum
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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Common Brushtail Possum | status = lc | image = Brushtail possum.jpg | image_width = 250px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammalia | subclassis = Marsupialia | ordo = Diprotodontia | familia = Phalangeridae | genus = Trichosurus | species = T. vulpecula | binomial = Trichosurus vulpecula | binomial_authority = (Kerr, 1792) }} The Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is the largest possum, and the Australian marsupial most often seen by city-dwellers, since it is one the very few that thrives in cities as well as a wide range of natural and human-modified environments.
Like most possums, the Common Brushtail is nocturnal. It is mainly a foliovore, but supplements its usual diet of leaves with fruit, invertebrates, flowers, buds, and whatever else is available. Around human habitations, Common Brushtails are inventive and determined foragers with a liking for fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and kitchen raids. They tend to avoid Eucalyptus leaves, apparently because they are unable to neutralise the tannins that most species secrete as a chemical defence.
During the day, Common Brushtails sleep in a nest in a hollow tree or any other convenient place, notably ceiling spaces that are not securely sealed. Although primarily aboreal and not found in places without trees to provide refuge, they spend a good deal of time on the ground.
Image:BrushtailPossum-Bh00 1.jpg
The very loud hissing, crackling territorial call of the male Common Brushtail has a nightmare quality. They have a number of other vocalizations, mainly consisting of pitched clicks. Most are also relatively quiet. Common Brushtail Possums can interbreed with Short-eared Possums, and perhaps several other related possums. Socially they form troups of around a dozen individuals usually organized around a dominant female. When offspring are just beginning to emerge from their mother's pouches till early adolesence the males guard the rest of the troup. During breeding season, both the males and females range outside their normal territories.
Although prohibited in many areas, Common Brushtail possums make excellent pets if they are given sufficient forested space. They are easy to feed with the vegetarian part of a human diet making a fairly complete possum diet.
European settlers aiming to establish a fur industry introduced the Common Brushtail to New Zealand, where there are no native mammals other than bats. There are now about 60 million Common Brushtail Possums in New Zealand. Their introduction has been ecologically damaging as they eat native vegetation, doing particular damage to broadleaved trees, notably rata, leading to canopy collapse and potentially competing for food with native forest birds. They do not have so much impact on Southern Beech (Nothofagus), but their presence tends to reduce the species diversity of Nothofagus forest since they eat many of the other species that would naturally be present. Attempts to reduce numbers by trapping and poisoning have had only short-term success, and the poisons used, usually sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) or cyanide are environmental hazards in themselves. To prevent damage to young trees it seems to be necessary to keep numbers very low, perhaps 5% of the levels that would be reached without interference. The possum is widely regarded in New Zealand as a major ecological threat, and ecological organisations such as the Ecologic Foundation encourage its elimination; however its impacts are compounded by those of other introduced species such as Red Deer and goats, not to mention human activities such as agriculture, forestry, and mining.
The Common Brushtail Possum has also been introduced to North America and possibly the Eurasian continent. Environmental effects have so far been relatively minor perhaps due to the presence of predators that prevent population densities from becoming excessive.
References
- Cowan, P. E., et al. (1997). Effects of possum browsing on northern rata, Orongorongo valley, Wellington, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 27, 173-179.
- Marsh, K. J., Wallis, I. R., & Foley, W. J. (2003). The effect of inactivating tannins on the intake of Eucalyptus foliage by a specialist Eucalyptus folivore (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) and a generalist herbivore (Trichosurus vulpecula). Australian Journal of Zoology, 51, 41-42.
- Payton, I. J., et al. (1997). Response of selected tree species to culling of introduced Australian brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula at Waipoua Forest, Northland, New Zealand. Biological Conservation, 81, 247-255.
- Rogers, G. M., & Leathwick, J. R. (1997). Factors predisposing forests to canopy collapse in the southern Ruahine Range, New Zealand. Biological Conservation, 80, 325-338
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External links
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