Leadbeater's possum

Leadbeater's possum[1]
Taxidermy specimen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Petauridae
Genus: Gymnobelideus
McCoy, 1867
Species:
G. leadbeateri
Binomial name
Gymnobelideus leadbeateri
McCoy, 1867
Leadbeater's possum range

Leadbeater's possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria,[3] Australia, north-east of Melbourne.[4] It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria.[5] They also go by the common name of fairy possum.[6] On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem.[7][8]

  1. ^ Groves, C. P. (2005). "Order Diprotodontia". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ^ Woinarski, J.; Burbidge, A.A. (2016). "Gymnobelideus leadbeateri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T9564A21959976. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T9564A21959976.en. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  3. ^ "Regional Forest Agreement CENTRAL HIGHLANDS - Updated Map" (PDF). Regional Forest Agreement. 31 March 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Macfarlane MA, Smith J, Lowe K 1998 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Hackett, Des (2006). Peter Preuss (ed.). Leadbeater's Possum: Bred To Be Wild. Trafford Publishing. p. 203. ISBN 1-4120-8382-6.
  6. ^ Tyndale-Biscoe, Hugh (2004). "Pygmy possums and sugar gliders: pollen eaters and sap suckers". Life of marsupials. CSIRO publishing. p. 203. ISBN 0-643-06257-2.
  7. ^ Delacombe, Rohan; Bolte, Henry (10 March 1971). "Faunal Emblems for the State of Victoria" (PDF). Victoria Government Gazette – Online Archive 1836–1997. State Library of Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  8. ^ Milman, Oliver (27 May 2013). "Government-backed logging 'pushing rare possum towards extinction". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 April 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.