A lot has happened in 2020, and very little of it has been good. The COVID pandemic is the star of this dreadful show, but the Australian bushfires also happened this year.
The bushfires that ravaged Australia claimed over 18.6 million hectares of land, or about 186,000 square kilometers.
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Scorching and unrelenting, they burned far and wide from June of 2019 till March of 2020.
They claimed not only the homes of countless Australians, but the homes of countless animals too. Climate change is the biggest factor, with dried leaves on forest floors and increasing global temperatures setting conditions right for fires such as this.
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Millions of species, ranging from Koalas to Kangaroos and emus, lost habitats and food sources. Another one of these victims was the Pygmy Possum, a pocket-sized marsupial with very little in the form of natural defenses.
But, in some much-needed good news, the little possums were rediscovered after the fires.
Their species is far from safe and sound, but any evidence of them surviving is good enough news already.
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About 88% of the estimated range of the Pygmy Possum was destroyed by the fires, according to ecologist Pat Hodgens. Due to how tiny they are, at about less than 10 grams, getting a solid sample of Pygmy possum populations and ecology is easier said than done.
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“This capture is the first documented record of the species surviving post-fire. The fire did burn through about 88% of that species’ predicted range, so we really weren’t sure what the impact of the fires would be, but it’s pretty obvious the population would have been pretty severely impacted.” – Hodgens tells The Guardian
A little pygmy possum (Cercartetus lepidus) has been found on Kangaroo Island for the first time since its habitat was mostly destroyed in bushfires that burnt almost half the island last summer. They're the world's smallest possums, weighing 7 grams. https://t.co/es6ZCM1VoM pic.twitter.com/vVBckSf5mt
— ABC Science (@ABCscience) December 6, 2020
Though what exactly is a Pygmy possum?
Well, for starters, this possum isn’t the only pipsqueak possum. Pygmy possums encompass a whole family, the Burramyidae. There’s about 8 species, but the little star of this show is Cercartetus lepidus, the Tasmanian Pygmy Possum.
This tiny pygmy possum has been found on Australia's Kangaroo Island despite bushfires devastating animal habitats last summer
It has given hope to ecologists who feared the species had been wiped outhttps://t.co/BPp4qc0Ajo pic.twitter.com/UZPANhoVL1
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 9, 2020
The Tasmanian Pygmy Possum currently holds the record for world’s smallest marsupial. And believe it when you hear “smallest”.
These possums can grip the tips of your thumbs like they’re tree branches.
It inhabits Mainland Australia, Tasmania and Kangaroo island. That’s a pretty big range for something so small, and yet all 3 of those regions were hit by the bushfires. Kangaroo Island had about 52% of its land covered by fire. That’s right, half the island.
Marino Conservation Park badly damaged by fire, as blaze continues to burn on Kangaroo Island https://t.co/iQgjeXcExx
— ABC Adelaide (@abcadelaide) December 5, 2020
With such tremendous numbers and forces against it, it’s easy to see why discovering its survival is wonderful news. It’s even more astounding when you realize that it’s smaller than a chicken nugget.
In fact, being so small is what’s creating more problems for it now. There’s just now catching a break for these little guys, huh?
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Now feral cats are eating them and spelling more trouble for them. A few have been found in the digestive tracts of some feral cats. It’s not easy being this small.
“They’re still not out of the woods because right now they’re at their most vulnerable – as the bushland regenerates they’re still very exposed to natural and introduced predators.” – Pat Hodgens
With the knowledge that the fight is far from over, all hope isn’t lost on the Pygmy possum. The same can be said for the rest of Australia’s wildlife.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7T4ZTRlMpg/?utm_source=ig_embed
Much of Australia’s wildlife is still recovering from the bushfires, and the Pygmy Possum is far from the only one who needs help from conservation and preservation efforts.
Plant species are where many other species hinge on for survival, and frequent fires in the future will make it hard for tree seeds and saplings to survive into another generation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvQi3Q4lBRr/?hl=en
And with roughly 3 billion animals displaced or having died during the fires, the scale of the destruction becomes difficult to process at times.
In order to preserve the natural world and everything in it, tackling climate change is our top priority. The delicate balance of our ecosystems, from our forests and jungles, to our oceans and food webs, hinges greatly on the Earth’s global temperature.
Let the survival of the Pygmy possum be one of many reminders of what we should be preserving.
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They might look cute and cuddly enough to take home, but their home is in the wild. And they can’t save their home by themselves. Though with plenty of effort and action, that could change.
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