| Common ringtail possum[1] | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Diprotodontia |
| Family: | Pseudocheiridae |
| Genus: | Pseudocheirus |
| Species: | P. peregrinus
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| Binomial name | |
| Pseudocheirus peregrinus (Boddaert, 1785)
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| Common ringtail possum range (except Western ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus occidentalis) range) (blue — native, red — introduced) | |
The common ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus, Greek for "false hand" and Latin for "pilgrim" or "alien") is an Australian marsupial.
It lives in a variety of habitats and eats a variety of leaves of both native and introduced plants, as well as flowers, fruits and sap. This possum also consumes caecotropes, which is material fermented in the caecum and expelled during the daytime when it is resting in a nest. This behaviour is called caecotrophy and is similar to that seen in rabbits.
- ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494.
- ^ Winter, J.; Menkhorst, P.; Lunney, D.; van Weenen, J. (2016). "Pseudocheirus peregrinus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T40581A21963019. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T40581A21963019.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.