📸 PhotoPhoto: Andrew Mercer (www.baldwhiteguy.co.nz) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Common Brush-tailed Possum
Trichosurus vulpecula (Common Brush-tailed Possum · フクロギツネ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum weight of 4.5 kg is slightly heavier than two 2 L water bottles (4 kg), and its maximum body length of 58 cm is about 2 times the long side of a sheet of A4 paper (29.7 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 In cities, it sometimes nests in house attics. Tasmania exports its fur and meat to China and Taiwan, and New Zealand exports hundreds of thousands of pelts every year.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Common Brush-tailed Possum is an arboreal marsupial living in the forests of Australia and Tasmania that has also spread to New Zealand. Its coat color varies by region.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It has large eyes and tall, rounded ears; its fur is short and dense, and its tail is long and bushy.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Active at night, it eats leaves, shoots, and flowers, and has such adaptable digestion that it can handle highly toxic flowers and leaves. By day it rests in hollow trees or logs, and in cities it also shelters in house attics.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2016) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/40585/21952080
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • mammaldiversity.org — 1000402
- • iucnredlist.org — 21952080
- • wikidata.org — Q732477
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Brushtail Possum - AndrewMercer IMG40135.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Trichosurus vulpecula
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Kawinwit Kittipalawattanapol · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.