Australia has 13 species of large Australian Possums. Possums are an arboreal herbivorous marsupial. Put simply arboreal means that they live in trees, and herbivorous indicates they are plant eaters. All possums are marsupials so just like the koala and the kangaroo they have a pouch in which they carry their young.
Gliders are a nocturnal marsupial that lives in trees. They have a membrane between their front and back limbs which enables them to glide through the air from tree to tree. This membrane is called a patagium. There are around six species of glider in Australia.
Fact about Possums and Gliders
The Sugar Glider is often mistaken for its close cousin the Squirrel Glider. The Squirrel Glider is noticeably larger than the Sugar Glider and does not have a white tip on the end of its tail. The snout of the Squirrel Glider is also pointier than that of the Sugar Glider.
