Deep in the rainforests and eucalyptus woodlands of Australia and New Guinea lives an enigmatic creature known as the striped possum. Quiet, cute, and nocturnal, its favorite activity is boring holes into the trees and using its elongated fingers to extract ants and termites from the trunks within. While the striped possum is hard to spot in the wilds of Australia, it’s much more common in the lowlands of New Guinea.
The striped possum is less than a foot long, though its tail is much longer. Its black-and-white pelt resembles a miniature and much cuter skunk, and it, too, exudes a sometimes stinky odor that may help it evade predators.
With a brain-to-body ratio larger than that of any other marsupial, it’s smart, which might be why it keeps its distance from humans. But you can hear it. The striped possum makes a loud sound at night when it’s most ...
