Michael Ward | Creative
A young Bennetts wallaby mother lets her Joey take a look at the world. In another couple of months this eager joey will have all its fur and be able to hop along with its mother on the nightly foraging excursion. But the nights in Tasmania are still close to being cold with strong gusts of wind so for now mums pouch is the best place to be…
Cyclops is a brush tail possum he left his mothers pouch late last year or early in 2024 he or perhaps she has a damaged right eye the fur is thin under the eye showing some scar tissue. I’m guessing it was caught by a claw from another possum or animal although most other creatures tend to avoid possums but I have seen larger male pademelons take a swipe at them and they also have formidable claws. From observation of Cyclops’s movements my guess is that he is totally blind in the right eye he is also much smaller than possums born in the same season and when we first encountered him he was not in the best condition. Even though he can climb trees very quickly he is at a disadvantage I have noticed that when climbing he has crashed into branches in his path. Possums are much maligned in Tasmania because they certainly cause damage to any fruit or nut trees. In urban areas they do like to break into attics and are often to heard chasing, fighting and bonking on roofs. As a result their major predators are humans, dogs and even cats when young.