Q: The benefits of camouflage would suggest that there should be green
mammals. Are there any 鈥� and if not, why not? (continued)
A: Your answers to this question (13 August) only mention the tree sloth,
which is not truly green, only covered with algae. There is a actually a real
green mammal 鈥� the green ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus archeri) 鈥� and what a
lovely animal it is (see Photograph). The possum is a marsupial endemic to a
small area in northeastern Australia. You can see a fine colour portrait of it
in The Complete Book of Australian Mammals (Angus and Robertson, 1983). The
article accompanying the portrait is by J. W Winter, an expert on the possums
of that part of Australia. He writes: 鈥淭his remarkably beautiful ringtail is
aptly named: a mixture of black, grey, yellow and white hairs confers a most
unusual lime-green colour to its thick, soft fur.鈥�
I would add that it is also the most docile wild animal I have ever
encountered. A scientist studying possums during the 1960s who caught one and
kept it for a day before returning it to the wild, allowed me to photograph
it. It made no attempt to struggle, scratch or bite when taken out of the
cage, nor did it try to escape.
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Winter makes no comment as to whether the green colour has any apparent
advantages, but he does report that 鈥渋ts daytime roost, unlike that of other
possums, is usually on an open branch. It sleeps upright, curled into a tight
ball gripping the branch with one or both hind feet and sitting on the base of
its coiled tail, with the forefeet, face and tip of the tail tucked tightly
into its belly.鈥�
A motionless, amorphous green ball among the multitudinous shades of green
in the rainforest would be far from obvious. The only predators Winter reports
(apart from Aborigines in the past) are nocturnal: the rufous owl (Ninox rufa)
and the spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus). The latter is a marsupial
carnivore, with a head and body length of about half a metre, found over much
of eastern Australia including Tasmania.
Yes, it鈥檚 cute, but if this is as green as green mammals get, we鈥檙e happy
to stand by the previous conclusion that there really are no green mammals 鈥�
Ed.