Injured possum gets new lease on life in fake tree home

A little striped possum with mobility issues has been given a new lease on life after moving into an artificial tree home custom-built for him in Queensland.

Beetlejuice was found with severe injuries on the side of a road near Cairns where rangers believe he was dropped by a bird of prey in September 2021.

The marsupial spent several months recovering at Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre in Brisbane, where he lives as he's unable to return to the wild due to permanent spinal and shoulder damage.

Beetlejuice recently moved into a new tree home rangers concerned about his comfort spent about a month designing.

The artificial tree has a wider branch and more indentations in the wood to make it easier for the impaired possum to grip when he's climbing up and down, ranger in charge Talia Maxwell says.

"Our rangers have been hard at work modifying the tree and creating the hollow and branch which required multiple layers of mock rocking and tweaking," she said on Friday.

"We had the base version of a tree to begin with and the team has been slowly modifying this to include a safe hollow and extended wide branch to suit Beetlejuice's needs."

The striped possum can only be found in north Queensland's Wet Tropics region and lowland areas of Papua New Guinea.

Beetlejuice is one of three at Walkabout Creek, making it one of the only places in the world people can see see the species in captivity.

"Like Beetlejuice, many of our wildlife come to the centre as they are no longer able to survive in the wild," Ms Maxwell said.

"We work to create structures like Beetlejuice's hollow and branch to enable the wildlife to display natural behaviours without being handled by visitors."