The Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecta) is the largest possum, and the most familiar of all Australian marsupials: one of the very few that thrives in cities as well as a wide range of natural and human-modified environments.
Like all possums, the Common Brushtail is nocturnal and omnivorous: in the wild it mostly eats leaves, but supplements this with fruits, flowers, buds, and whatever else is available. Common Brushtails have a notable tolerace to plant toxins; several of their favoured trees are poisonous to most creatures. Around human habitations, Common Brushtails are inventive and determined foragers with a liking for fruit trees, vegetable gardens, compost heaps and rubbish bins.
During the day Common Brushtails sleep in a nest in a hollow tree or any other convenient place, notably ceiling spaces that are not securely sealed. Although primarily aboreal and not found in places without trees to provide refuge, they spend a good deal of time on the ground.
The very loud hissing, crackling territorial call of the male Common Brushtail has a nightmare quality.
European settlers aiming to establish a fur industry introduced the Common Brushtail to New Zealand, where there are no native mammals other than bats. This proved to be an ecological disaster on a grand scale: there are now about 60 million Common Brushtail Possums in New Zealand, and no reasonable hope of eradication.
