Sometimes, in the middle of the night, it sounds like a horse is galloping across my tin roof. But having lived in Brisbane for a few years now, I know it is probably only a couple of brushtail possums.
This one came onto my back verandah last night in search of something to eat.
Hi Jennifer,
I photographed this striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata) at Cooper Creek Wilderness on the 21st October, 2006, and I was very pleased to see that this photograph of a striped possum, was in fact, two.
Sparsely distributed throughout the wet tropics and along the east coast of Cape York (Australia), the species is spectacularly acrobatic and most frequently found after hearing it crash into overhead vegetation.
Striped possum carrying young, Cooper Creek Wilderness, 21st October 2006
It forages by welting rotten tree material and listening carefully for beetle larvae, which it extricates with its specialised elongate fourth digit on the front feet.
At Cooper Creek Wilderness we are hoping for the onslaught of the heavy wet in the not too distant future, when the sounds of striped possums will be overwhelmed by a menagerie of treefrogs and insects.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
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