Скачать или смотреть Possum | The possum is one of the most common marsupials in Australia.“

Possums are nocturnal animals that can navigate tall trees with surprising agility and aplomb. Sometimes living side by side with humans, possums can be seen or even heard scurrying around on roofs or decks at night. The words possums and opossums are sometimes used interchangeably, but they actually mean different things. Opossum refers specifically to the American opossums. Possum, on the other hand, refers to the Australian variety with the scientific name of Phalangeriformes. They belong to different orders but are both examples of marsupials.
The marsupial is an ancient lineage of mammals that split off from placental mammals over 100 million years ago. Modern possums, kangaroos, and koalas probably evolved from a common ancestor that lived some 20 to 30 million years ago.
Males and females are known as jacks and jills, respectively, while a group is called a passel.
In Australia and some of the nearby islands, the spread of towns and cities has made encounters much more common. Sometimes considered to be a pest, possums like to hide in dark areas such as attics, sheds, and garages, causing damage and destruction to gardens, farms, forests, and equipment. They represent almost no danger to humans on their own, but they can spread diseases by piercing the skin with their sharp claws. If you encounter one in or near your residence, then it is a good idea to avoid contact and let professionals remove them in a humane manner.
Possums are animals that vary as much in their behavior as they do in their physical characteristics. The brush-tail possums are nocturnal and solitary creatures that only come together for the breeding season. As the most terrestrial and earthbound of all possums, they can live near human homes and gardens. The ring-tail possums, on the other hand, are highly social creatures that inhabit communal nests known as dreys. These groups usually consist of the male and female breeding pair and the offspring. The aforementioned gliders (including the well-known squirrel glider and sugar glider) have flaps between their limbs to glide between tree branches and the ground below. One species has been observed to travel as much as 65 feet at once.