MOUNTAIN PYGMY-POSSUM

Burramys parvus

Critically Endangered

Mountain Pygmy-possum Recovery in the Victorian Alps

Facts: • The Mountain Pygmy Possum is under threat – there are only about 2,000 adult possums remaining in the wild, this number has been declining in recent years.

 

  • It is one of the smallest Australian possums • Endemic to the alpine and subalpine regions of south-eastern Australia
  • It lives in boulder fields and rock screes

 

More than half of the Mountain Pygmy-possum’s diet is insects, especially Bogong Moths in spring and summer.  While thousands of people are enjoying the alpine snowfields, the Mountain Pygmy-possum is hibernating, asleep under the snow in rock crevices.

 

THE SPECIES

Mountain Pygmy-possums are only found above 1,200m and inhabit deep extensive boulder fields. Females have a gestation period of just 13 days and a litter of up to four joeys can be weaned at a mere 9-10 weeks of age. These small terrestrial marsupials can hibernate for up to seven months per year under the snow, a necessary lifestyle trait they maintain to survive. Historically, wild females can live for up to 12 years and males to 5 years, however the majority now only live for 1 -3 years, largely due to threatening processes in their alpine homes.

All three geographically isolated populations are threatened by

 

  • Habitat destruction and fragmentation (due to ski resort development and road, dam and aqueduct construction), erosion and weed invasion and increasing catastrophic events such as fires.
  • Predation by feral animals, including foxes and cats.
  • The effects of small population size and consequent inbreeding.
  • A changing climate which reduces available habitat, interferes with the insulating effects of snow during hibernation and the seasonal migration of the Bogong Moths; a critical food source during the breeding season. The migration of additional temperate species into these areas would also have devastating effects on the remaining populations of Mountain Pygmy-possums