#0222 · 🦊 mammals
Common Brushtail Possum
🇳🇱 Voskoesoe ·Trichosurus vulpecula
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The common brushtail possum ( Trichosurus vulpecula , from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus Phalangista ) is a nocturnal, semi-arboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, it is native to Australia, and the second largest of the possums.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 25,841 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Robert Kerr in 1792 (234 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Common Brushtail Possum
- Nederlands
- Voskoesoe
- scientific name
- Trichosurus vulpecula
- class
- Mammalia
- order
- Diprotodontia
- family
- Phalangeridae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 25,841
- GBIF records in NL
- 1
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1792 by Robert Kerr
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Phalangeridae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 42808, Wikidata Q732477, GBIF 2440254, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.