Common Ringtail Possum - Australian Museum

ANIMAL SPECIES:Common Ringtail Possum

The Common Ringtail Possum is well known to many Sydney residents. Together with the Common Brushtail Possum, it has adapted well to living in close association with humans and is often seen in suburban gardens at night.

Identification

About the size of a cat, the Common Ringtail Possum is grey with white patches behind the eyes and on the belly, and orange-brown tinges on the tail and limbs. Its long prehensile tail has a white tip and it uses it like a fifth limb to climb and jump between connecting branches, fences and powerlines. The structure of its forefeet, with a gap between the second and third fingers (known as 'syndactyly'), allows the possum to hold onto branches securely.

Sometimes people mistake Black Rats for Ringtail Possums. Some characteristics that help to distinguish the Common Ringtail Possum from the Black Rat include:

Front teeth: Three pairs of upper incisors, one pair of lower incisors.
Head: Rounded head with slightly bulging eyes.
Ears: Short rounded ears with white patch behind.
Colouring: Variable grey to near-black back, sometimes tinged red-orange, white to red-orange below; red-orange legs.
Tail: Tapering prehensile tail with a white tip, naked underside, furred above. Carried in coil when not used.

Size range

Body 300 mm - 350 mm, Tail 300 mm - 350 mm, weight 700 - 1100 g.

Similar Species

Sometimes confused with the Black Rat

Distribution

The Common Ringtail Possum is found in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Habitat

Almost exclusively tree-dwelling, the Common Ringtail Possum lives in in forests, woodlands, rainforests, dense scrub and suburban gardens. During the day, the Common Ringtail Possum sleeps in its spherical nest or 'drey' made from grass and shredded bark. It builds the drey in a tree hole, tree fork or dense vegetation, and several individuals may share the one nest.

Behaviour and adaptations

Feeding and Diet

The Common Ringtail Possum is nocturnal and eats a variety of leaves of both native and introduced plants, as well as flowers and fruits. By eating its own faecal pellets, it digests its food twice to extract the maximum amount of nutrients. When the mother is feeding, the male carries the young on his back and cares for them.

Other behaviours and adaptations

The Common Ringtail is the only species of possum currently known in which the male helps to care for the young.

Classification

Species:: peregrinus
Genus:: Pseudocheirus
Family:: Pseudocheiridae
Order:: Diprotodontia
Subclass:: Marsupialia
Class:: Mammalia
Subphylum:: Vertebrata
Kingdom:: Animalia

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Ondine Evans , Web Researcher/Editor
Last Updated: 13 July 2011

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8 comments

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Mark Eldridge
7.07 AM, 13 July 2011

Hi LadyJOJO, no we don't have racoons in Australia (they are found in North America). It sounds like you have both ringtail possums and brushtail possums in your backyard. Brushtails are quite vocal and hiss and squabble amongst themselves quite a lot. Ringtails are much less vocal and usually only make a soft high pitched chirping twitter. Your creature with a grey body and black bushy tail sounds like a common brushtail possum, although the face marking you describe are usual for this species.

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Mark Eldridge
2.08 PM, 24 August 2010

Hi Possumgirl, the omnivorous common brush-tail possum does has a reputation as a scavenger of pet food amongst other things. This can bring it into conflict with some pets and their owners. Such behaviour is much less common for ringtails as they tend to prefer leaves, flowers and fruits.

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pOSSUMGIRL
9.06 PM, 02 June 2010

Well we are having a delightful experience with possums at the moment. We have 3 pet rabbits who we discovered the localy bushtail possums loved sharing their food with (or vice versa). One of the mum possums died so the baby possum has been hanging around quite a lot. We have now seen tonight for the first time a ring tailed possum, the bushies already have visited tonight and have gone. The word must be out about the rabbit's food!

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Ondine Evans
4.06 PM, 11 June 2009

Hi Joel - the Common Ringtail Possum, although definitely under pressure from predators such as cats, is not listed as threatened at present. However, its relative, the Western Ringtail Possum is listed as Vulnerable federally, and as Rare or likely to become extinct on a state level in Western Australia.

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joel-tremblay
11.06 PM, 09 June 2009

I've seen these around our house at night - though not as often as in the past. What is the conservation status of the Common Ringtail? With all the cats around now I assumed they would be heading towards endangered?