Australia is famous for its unique wildlife, and in a lot of cases, how much that unique wildlife is unsuited to cohabitation with humanity. The bugs. I'm talking about the giant bugs. Shudder.
Of course giant, venomous insects and reptiles are only part of Australia's wildlife charm. There are also plenty of cuties among the native animals.
Austrialian possums aren't actually related to the North American marsupials that regularly terrorize my dogs, aside from being part of the marsupial family.
According to Merriam-Webster, the Australian possums were simply named the same due to their similar appearance to the Virginia possum.
They're so tiny!
Australia is the only home for four of the five known species of pygmy possums in the world (the fifth is also found in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia), and the Western Pygmy Possum is the cutest, IMHO.
And they have little dark rings around their eyes.
You know what the craziest thing is? They are some of the biggest of the pygmy possums! From nose to bum, they max out at about 4 inches, with another 3-4 inches of tail.
During the day, they sleep in hollows of trees or even bird's nests before heading out at night to find food and shelter for their next day.
They feed on nectar and pollen, as well as occasional insects.
Basically, they are the sweetest and I love them to pieces.
