Leadbeater's Possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) is an endangered possum restricted to small pockets of remaining old growth mountain ash forests in the central highlands of Victoria (Australia) north-east of Melbourne
The Black Friday fires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia, were considered one of the worst natural bushfires (wildfires) in the world, and certainly the single worst in Australian history as a measure of land affected. Almost 20,000 km² (4,942,000 acres,
With its known habitat[11] destroyed in the disastrous bushfires of February 2009 - large areas of forest around Marysville, Narbethong and Healesville - the species status is currently in doubt.[6] The mapped distribution of the Leadbeater's possum was within the area burnt by the fires. Since the fires, the surviving population has been estimated at fewer than 100, with the entire distribution confined to a 70 by 80 kilometre area..
Female offspring disperse at an earlier age (10 months) than males (15 months) and suffer a high mortality due to their exclusion from established colonies (Smith 1984).
Due to the success of recent cases preventing logging of remaining possum habitat, the Baillieu State government has proposed changes that will allow loggers to ignore existing legislation protecting threatened species, virtually signing the death warrant of the Leadbeater's possum [16]. These variations to the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2007 [17] allow the Secretary of the Department of Sustainability and Environment to exempt logging operations from the requirements of a Flora and Fauna Guarantee Action Statement[18].
... would I let this bloke look after my dog... it might be of some interest to note that the inviromentalists put their case first, and old mate can get his old mate to '...ignore existing legislation...' and the possum's toast. That would be a real shame.
Following the death of Kasia, the last captive Leadbeater's Possum, at Toronto Zoo in January 2010, there are now no Leadbeater's Possums in captivity anywhere in the world and so no breeding program to assist this animal's survival.[19] The last Australian specimen held at Healesville Sanctuary died in May 2006. The formation of the Friends of Leadbeater's Possum group is seen as a positive step towards raising the profile of this diminishing animal
Distribution map.... i didn't think the map would show up, but it's all there in the link for anyone interested in this animal
Endangered (Schedule 1, Endangered Species Protection Act 1992, IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals 1994, ANZECC 1991, CNR 1995). In Victoria, Leadbeater's Possum is listed as a threatened taxon on Schedule 2 of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. Leadbeater's Possum was thought to be extinct following no records for 50 years when it was rediscovered in the Central Highlands of Victoria (Wilkinson 1961).
Since then it has been recorded at approximately 300 localities, over an area of approximately 80 km east to west and 65 km north to south (Macfarlane and Seebeck 1991). The species is now primarily restricted to the tall eucalypt forests of Mountain Ash, Alpine Ash and Shining Gum in the Central Highlands, where it occurs in numerous scattered patches throughout the area
Overall Objective:
To downlist Leadbeater's Possum from endangered to vulnerable within 10 years based on the IUCN (1994) criteria of population trend and size, extent of occurrence, probability of extinction, and the management of habitat towards a target of no more than a 1% probability of extinction over 250 years throughout the forest within its current range.
Habitat
The most important components of Leadbeater's Possum habitat are nest-tree abundance, vegetation structure and food availability. Large old hollow trees (either dead or alive) for nesting and shelter are essential for the survival of Leadbeater's Possum. Leadbeater's Possum prefer short, fat trees with numerous holes and a large quantity of dense surrounding vegetation. Smith and Lindenmayer (1988) asserted that, since Leadbeater's Possum does not prefer living mature trees as nest sites until they exceed 2 m dbh (approximately 200 years old), the loss of dead hollow-bearing trees due to natural fall would render much existing regrowth forest unsuitable during the next 140 years .
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodivers ... index.html
This stuff came straight orf the net... see if you can get the above link to work... it’s page written the Oz government... Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. it’s written in places where only a poly could understand it, but I have cut and toasted some of the highlights that I thought were immediately relevant.
This site goes into massive lengths about what is was going to do about the Leadbeater possum decline in round about 1991 and it was updated today... I can’t see which bit was ‘updated’ ... however, I was not the ‘updater’
Apparently, this pretty little creature is not much bigger than a rat, and goes back in time a very long way.. Leadbeater's Possum is the only member of the genus Gymnobelideus
Hopefully it is nowhere near related to the Suburban brush tailed roof possum, as I have little regard for that one.
In reality, these little beauties have been around for a very long time. Where there is one seen, very likely there are a few more that remain unseen. They have come back from ‘extinction’ a few times now, and as far as I am concerned they should get the bloody machines out, get the lumber jacks out... get everything out... and leave the little marsupial to get on with what it knows best how to do... survive.
However, if the government departments and the timber companies don’t see eye to eye in the next two and a half years, pretty near all the breeding females will have died orf, leaving infant/juvenile females and then the species is in real trouble unless, the females can be caught and used as a breeding programme.
Seeing as how they nest up in pretty much identifiable conditions, a dog with a good nose for the job should find a good few possums in hollow logs.
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodivers ... d/publicat
ions/recovery/leadbeaters-possum/index.html
All the above is taken from an internet site with the attitude of ‘if we lived in a real world’... but we don’t.
Here’s hoping it survives...
...croc