A real possum appears among plush toy animals in Australian airport gift shop
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — On shelves filled with stuffed native animals in an Australian airport gift shop, a fluffy possum stood out: Its big brown eyes moved.
A sailing passenger spotted a live Australian possum for the first time, peering among kangaroos on the store display shelf at the departure terminal at Hobart Airport in Tasmania state on Wednesday, Liam Bloomfield, the airport’s retail sales manager, said on Thursday.
Above the possum were bilbies, marsupials with long rabbit ears, and dingoes, Australia’s native dog. Next to the possum in the kangaroo section were Tasmanian devils, a growling carnivore that inspired the feisty Warner Bros. cartoon character Taz.
“A passenger reported it to … one of the service staff who couldn’t believe what she was hearing,” Bloomfield said. “She then called (airport) management and told them we had a possum in the store.”
A staff member took a video of the possum with their phone before the animal became suspicious of the increasing attention and left the store.
Airport staff were able to remove the opossum from the airport unharmed.
Bloomfield didn’t know what attracted the opossum to the toy shelf.
“I guess he saw some of the stuffed animals that were for sale on the shelves and decided to move in with them. He wanted to blend in,” Bloomfield joked.
It’s also unclear how the opossum got into the store and how long it spent there.
It is unlikely that it was placed there as a prank. Someone would have had to x-ray the possum to get it to the secure area of the departure terminal.
