Clever Tom escapes the winter chill

Clever little Tom, the Ring-tailed possum, has built his own nest to keep warm this winter.

Tom came to us in 2010 with his twin sister Tahlia. Sadly their mother had been killed by a car, but luckily a lovely Mosman resident checked her pouch and found the two tiny babies.

They were then brought to Taronga Zoo’s Wildlife Hospital and hand raised by a keeper.

As they came to us at a young age, they became very comfortable to having contact with people and are now used in many of our education programs.

They are very important ambassadors for their relatives in the wild, as they teach our guests about the importance of our unique Australian wildlife and the need to protect them.

Tom usually sleeps in a nice nest box that he fills with leaves and branches for bedding. But he’s gone one step further this year and made a real drey out of a branch of eucalyptus that the keeper put in for him to eat.

While Tom never had the chance to learn this skill from his mum, he still knows exactly what to do because of pure instinct. What a clever possum!

- Keeper, Bec Noad