Promiscuous Possums: a question of habitual harmony
By Hannah Isom
Ever wondered what is the secret to a happy marriage? Well, if you happen to be a mountain brushtail possum, it's all a question of Feng Shui.Dr Jenny Martin from the Zoology department of Melbourne University has been studying these little critters (also known as bobucks) in northeast Victoria and discovered that male possums living in undisturbed forests are rather promiscuous, whereas those residing in habitats disturbed by human logging mate for life.
This evidence is the result of 5 years of painstaking possum watching at 2 different sites, one that had been logged and another that had been undisturbed. It seemed the key to the differences in behaviour was the number of hollow-bearing trees. "Bobucks sleep in hollows that are only found in big old trees", explains Jenny. At the undisturbed site, there were plenty of these hollow trees, so females all lived within close proximity and didn't travel around much. This proved too much temptation for the male possums, who were able to take their pick of partners for some no-strings fun. Conversely on the site that had been logged by humans, hollow trees were more scarce and far away from sources of food. Therefore females were spread over much larger areas and the males had to find a mate and hold on to her for dear life.
This research is the first to document the profound effect of human habitat disruption on the social life of marsupials. Jenny claims that "Days of our Lives has nothing on this real-life soap opera", maybe they just need more interesting TV programmes in Australia.
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