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Animal Age

How old does a Leadbeater’s possum get? (age expectancy)

What is the maximal age a Leadbeater’s possum reaches?

An adult Leadbeater’s possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) usually gets as old as 11 years.

Leadbeater’s possums are around 18 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 86 grams (0.19 lbs) and measure 15.7 cm (0′ 7″). As a member of the Petauridae family (genus: Gymnobelideus), a Leadbeater’s possum caries out around 1 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 2 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 77.3 cm (2′ 7″).

As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

A Leadbeater's possum gets as old as 11 years

Leadbeater’s possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater’s possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria. They also go by the common name of fairy possum. On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater’s possum its faunal emblem.

Animals of the same family as a Leadbeater’s possum

Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Petauridae):

Animals that reach the same age as Leadbeater’s possum

With an average age of 11 years, Leadbeater’s possum are in good companionship of the following animals:

Animals with the same number of babies Leadbeater’s possum

The same number of babies at once (1) are born by:

Weighting as much as Leadbeater’s possum

A fully grown Leadbeater’s possum reaches around 137 grams (0.3 lbs). So do these animals: