Wednesday 10 November 2010

What is the Coffs Harbour Critter?


Yes, it's another bloated corpse of some poor unfortunate animal, but this time washed up on an Australian beach - Diggers Beach, near Coffs Harbour, NSW, to be exact.

Dubbed Australia's own 'Montauk Monster, the animal, roughly two foot long, was found by surfers on Father’s Day, who took a photo of the carcass with a mobile phone.

What the heck is it? Guesses? Monkey? Sloth? Or something with a more local flavour?

We think it looks suspiciously like a balding possum, the hair loss attributed to possible dermatitis or burns/scarring from a bushfire, and the folks at National Parks and Wildlife seem to agree...but all is not lost!

It's thought this black-furred brushtail possum is actually a rare black colour morph (the body is also black), still making it rather special.


And this is how our little friend most likely looked when he was alive (Photo by Greg Schechter, Flickr):


And here's the most common colour variant for a brushtail possum, silvery grey with a dark tail. Possums also come in brown, black as mentioned, and gold. The silvery grey variant is a common sight in many Australian suburban backyards:




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