Toe-biting Possums

Many brushtail possums have a toe-biting habit. When I was on holidays in Tasmania a few years ago, one of the local possums (named Rufus) greeted me in the following way:

Rufus toe-biting - Cradle Mountain, Tasmania 8/9/2008

I haven't worked out what the motivation for this is.

The majority will advance menacingly towards a person's foot, lightly nip at the big toe then run away. Some, however, will merely sniff at a toe. Very few will bite hard. Some possums never toe-bite at all. Ginger, our first possum, was like this. She would occasionally climb a person's leg, but never toe-bite.

Kiki

Since it's Mother's Day, I thought I'd write about Kiki. Kiki is the dominant female brushtail in the area (i.e. the Top Possum, because the females are always higher in the pecking order than the males).

Kiki is around four years old and has had six babies, which makes her the most successful mother brushtail we've seen so far.

Here's a recent photo:

Kiki (right) and Flea (left)