What’s the handsome mammal with plush white fur that is most threatened by global warming? If you’re thinking of Alaska’s polar bear, think tropical Queensland Australia instead.
The lemuroid ring-tailed possum (Hemibelideus lemuroides) already appears to may have vanished from its narrow 1200-square-mile habitat in two mountaintop cloudforests there. These house cat-size marsupials, which come in both white and brown varieties, live at the top of old growth forests. They’re active only at night. So they’ve never been particularly easy to see. But researchers working with spotlights have not been able to locate one since 2005.
“It is not looking good,” researcher Steve Williams told the Brisbane Courier-Mail [N.B. He says now this was an off-hand remark to a reporter, not an official assessment. See follow-up below.] “If they have died out it would be first example of something that has gone extinct purely because of global warming.” He’s planning another effort early next year to locate animals in the Carbine range three hours north of Cairns. The possums, which have small gliding membranes and use their prehensile tails as rudders when soaring from tree to tree, have never been kept in captivity. Read the rest of this entry »
strange behaviors 