Rare Australian possum may have gone extinct due to climate change
Articles — By forcechange on December 3, 2008 9:15 am
Another canary in the climate has been identified in Australia, except this time the threatened creature is a mammal and it appears to have already disappeared. The creature in question is the white lemuroid possum, and it hasn’t been seen in its home in the Daintree rainforest of Queensland, Australia since 2005.
Scientists are attributing the possum’s disappearance to the 1.5 degree F rise in temperatures in the region. The fragile creature’s habitat was above 3,000 feet in the “cloud forest.” If actually extinct, the loss of the white lemuroid possum, now known as the “Dodo of the Daintree,” would be a major warning sign that we are causing great damage to our plant’s ecosystem. Whether we heed that warning remains to be seen.
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