EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Lemuroid Ringtail Possum in the Canopy

Lemuroid Ringtail Possum (Hemibelideus lemuroides), Family Pseudocheiridae
Queensland, Australia

Explanation:   What makes this sighting so special?  This is a scarce marsupial of the dense tropical forests of northeastern Australia, although it is locally more commonly encountered.  But its entire geographic range is just a tiny portion of the coastal rainforests of Queensland.  Also it is essentially nocturnal, and mostly arboreal, staying largely to the high tree crowns.  

Finding these wonderful mammals takes being in the right rainforest, without rain, at night, and with a spotlight to find their bright white eyeshine in the distant tree canopies overhead.  Often they may be heard first, crashing and leaping through the foliage.  

Like some other possums, lemuroid ringtails use their tail as a fifth prehensile limb when climbing and scrambling among the high canopy branches.  Often occurring in family groups, this one was solitary. During the day they occupy tree cavities. 

Their odd name comes from their resemblance to lemurs of Madagascar, although the similarity is superficial as the two species belong to entirely different and divergent evolutionary lines.  

Lemuroid Ringtail Possums can cry with loud wails and
screams, which sound eerie in the dense dark old rainforests.
    

The species may be at high risk of extinction from clearing and cutting of dense old rainforests.  Since they are mostly arboreal and depend on traveling in the forest canopy, disturbances that open up the canopy could fragment their habitat and isolate family groups.  The species might also be highly susceptible to changes in their forest environment from climate change, since they occupy such a tiny range.