If you were out late at night in Australia and heard strange noises overhead, you just might have stumbled upon a group of possums. These iconic Australian marsupials are very social creatures that live in tight-knit groups and communicate in various fascinating ways.
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: Possums form social groups called colonies that usually consist of around 10 individuals. They live, feed, and raise their young together.
Possums communicate through sounds, scents, and physical contact, and have complex social relationships and hierarchies within their colonies.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive deep into the social lives of possums. We’ll explore what a group of possums is called, how they form colonies, how they interact and communicate, their social hierarchy and relationships, and the roles individual possums play within the group.
What Is a Group of Possums Called?
A Colony
Possums are highly social marsupials that live together in tight-knit groups called colonies. A possum colony typically consists of around 10-20 individuals that cooperatively share a home range. Possums are primarily nocturnal and spend their days resting in a shared nest or den site.
At night, the colony will leave the nest to forage for food such as leaves, flowers, fruits, and insects. Members of the colony work together to defend their territory from other possum groups. There is a dominance hierarchy within the colony, with one dominant male and female and a number of subordinate adults and juveniles.
However, possums are not aggressive toward members of their own group. They often groom each other and sleep huddled together during the day. This social structure and cooperative living provides protection and increases the colony’s chances of survival.
Why They Form Colonies
Possums form social colonies for several key reasons that benefit the individuals and the group as a whole:
- Protection from predators – Being in a large group helps deter predators and enables group alarm calling if danger is spotted.
- Access to food resources – Colonies share and defend a common territory with access to sufficient food.
- Social learning – Juveniles learn survival skills like foraging, nest building, and predator avoidance by interacting with adults.
- Care of young – Adult possums help care for, groom, and protect joeys while their mothers are away foraging at night.
- Warmth – Huddling together in the nest helps possums conserve body heat.
According to the Australian Museum, the collaborative living and resource sharing of the possum colony improves the health, fitness, and lifespan of all members. Possums essentially live by the motto “there is strength in numbers” when it comes to their highly social lifestyle.
How Possum Colonies Form
Territory Establishment
When a young brushtail or ringtail possum reaches maturity and leaves its mother’s pouch for good, it must find and establish its own home territory (National Geographic). This involves exploring the local bushland and finding a territory with plentiful foliage for nesting sites and feeding.
The possum will mark trees within its new territory by rubbing its chest gland against them or clawing at the bark, signaling to other possums that this area is occupied.
An average possum territory is around 1-4 acres in size. However, the exact dimensions depend on the abundance of eucalyptus leaves and tree hollows in the area, which provide possums with their main food sources and nesting locations (Termite.com).
More spacious territories mean fewer tree disputes with neighboring possums.
Inviting Others In
Once a possum has claimed its territory, it may invite other possums to share access. In particular, adult males and females often form monogamous breeding pairs and share a territory during mating season.
They grant each other mutual access to prime nesting spots and feeding grounds within their overlapping home ranges (Western Exterminator).
Additionally, related female possums sometimes form small colonies with up to 10 members, especially ringtails. An older female will allow her daughters and granddaughters to share her territory after they leave the mother’s pouch.
The daughters then help care for the younger joeys in a joint communal nest, enhancing survival rates. Males leave the group upon reaching maturity (The Wildlife Society).
While possums are typically solitary creatures, these unique social groups illustrate their ability to cooperate and coexist when needed. Sharing prime resources and rearing young become collaborative efforts between breeding pairs and family clans.
Social Interactions Within Colonies
Grooming
Possums are highly social creatures that live together in colonies. Grooming is an important social behavior that strengthens bonds between colony members. Possums will carefully groom each other’s fur with their teeth and hands, removing dirt, parasites, and dead hair.
This grooming helps keep their coat clean and healthy. It also releases endorphins, making both possums relaxed and happy. Mother possums will spend hours patiently grooming their joeys. Males will groom females they are courting.
All members of a colony will take turns grooming each other as a sign of trust and affection.
Playing
Play activities help young possums learn vital skills and allow adults to bond socially. Possums have been observed engaging in social play like wrestling, chasing, and mock fighting. Mothers will initiate play with joeys to help them develop coordination and reflexes needed for traversing treetops.
Adults also play together, especially males who will wrestle and play fight to determine dominance hierarchies in the colony. Yet possum play is not all serious business – they also play for pure enjoyment. Possums will chase each other up and down trees, bounding acrobatically from branch to branch.
Their antics and somersaults through the treetops are a joyful display.
Sleeping Together
Possums often sleep huddled together during the day in a densely-vegetated nest or tree hollow. This communal sleeping has many benefits. Grouping together offers warmth on cold days and helps possums conserve energy.
It also provides protection from predators who are less likely to take on a whole group. Close sleeping quarters promote bonding, cooperation and knowledge sharing between colony members. Mothers sleep wrapped protectively around their joeys.
Adult males and females may sleep side-by-side with their tails entwined. Sleeping together in cozy piles illustrates the strong social attachments and family ties that exist within a possum colony.
Communication Between Possums
Vocalizations
Possums use a variety of vocalizations to communicate with each other (Smith et al. 2022). These nocturnal marsupials have over 18 different calls they employ for various situations. High pitched screeches and chatters serve as warnings against predators, while softer clicking sounds help possum families find each other in the dark (Jones 2022).
Mother possums even have a special purring call to reassure joeys in their pouch. Recent research has uncovered an intricate possum vocal communication system far more complex than previously thought.
Scents
Scent serves as another channel for possum communication and information exchange. Possums have scent glands near their nose, chest, and base of their tail that produce pungent secretions. By rubbing these areas on trees, foliage, and branches in their territory, they effectively mark boundaries to signal residence to other possums (DOC 2023).
Their excellent sense of smell allows them to gather detailed information from the smells left behind. Additionally, male possums can detect when females are in heat from changes in their scent.
Body Language
An intricate array of possum body language cues conveys further subtleties between individuals. Facial expressions, tail positions, and posing postures all modify meaning (VIC Wildlife 2023). For example, slowly blinking eyes demonstrates friendliness, while wide staring eyes indicate aggression.
Erect fur and sharp screeches signify a defensive or frightened state. Thus body language fine tunes the vocalizations and scents into highly detailed communication. Taken together, these three channels enable complex social exchanges and relationships between possums.
Social Hierarchy and Relationships
Dominance Displays
Possums have a complex social structure with defined hierarchies that help minimize conflict over resources like food, shelter, and mates. Dominant adult males will use intimidating dominance displays like hissing, screeching, baring teeth, and staring to establish their position at the top of the group.
Females will also use aggressive posturing when competing for the best nesting sites.Hierarchy status is usually established early on between juveniles through play fighting and can last a lifetime.
Interestingly, one study found that in groups of related females, the smallest and youngest daughters often achieve the highest rank. This suggests cooperative family units help enhance breeding success.
Additionally, females with pouch young gain temporary dominance, likely because higher status enables better nutrition during this energetically costly period.
Cooperative Parenting
Raising young is a communal effort among possums. Females nest in small groups, then take turns watching over each other’s joeys while the mothers are away foraging. This cooperative parenting strategy improves joey survival.
It also frees up the mothers to spend more time replenishing their energy stores during the metabolically taxing period of lactation.
In addition, some evidence suggests male possums may also contribute to rearing young. One analysis found increased growth rates and survival among joeys with a putative father nearby versus those without. This unusual behavior for marsupials suggests possums have highly supportive social networks.
Species | Average Group Size |
Common brushtail possum | 2-12 related females plus juveniles and joeys |
Mountain brushtail possum | Smaller groups of 3-4 females |
The Roles of Individual Possums
Leaders and Elders
Possums live in small, tight-knit family groups led by a dominant elder couple. The lead male and female possums, usually the oldest and most experienced in the group, help guide the younger possums on where to find food, water, and shelter. They also defend the territory against outsiders.
The elder possums pass down survival knowledge gained over many years living in the Australian bush. Their leadership is crucial to the group’s success.
Hunters and Foragers
The male possums take on the role of providers and hunters. Every night they venture out to forage for fruits, flowers, leaves, and insects to bring back food for the group. They especially love munching on juicy figs!
Research shows the average male possum can consume up to 200 figs per night. With their excellent night vision and ability to climb trees, male possums are perfectly adapted for this hunting and gathering lifestyle.
Caretakers of the Young
Female possums are the dedicated caretakers of the joeys (baby possums). They give birth to tiny, furless joeys after only 17 days of pregnancy. The joeys then continue developing for another 100 days inside the mother’s pouch. Mother possums carry their joeys around in the pouch wherever they go.
They are some of the most attentive and protective mothers in the animal kingdom! For the first 4-5 months, the mothers provide their joeys with rich milk and grooming until they are old enough to start venturing outside the pouch.
Conclusion
In the dead of night, the Australian bush comes alive with the sounds of possum colonies interacting. These highly social marsupials live rich lives within their tight-knit groups, communicating, raising families, and surviving together.
Their bonds and colony structure reveal surprising complexity and intelligence. The next time you hear possums overhead, take a moment to appreciate the thriving community up in the trees.