When you look at giant flying couscous or possums, it’s hard to believe they’re not cute cuddly toys, but rather real animals. Couscous that look so adorable are native to Australia. Only recently, zoologists discovered as many as three subspecies of these animals.
As an adult, they weigh barely one and a half kilograms. They feed on plants and their fruits, and their favourite activity is picking and eating eucalyptus leaves, reminiscent of the other popular and endemic Australian species, the koalas.
In search of leaves, flying cuckoos climb up to 100 metres above the ground. To get down, they jump off branches and hover like flying squirrels. The webbing between their legs helps them do this.
Just a few years ago, possums were thought to be on the brink of extinction because of severe fires and deforestation in Australia.
But it has recently emerged that their population is much larger than scientists thought, consisting of several subspecies at once. Each is now protected by the state.
