Western Ringtail Possum - Description

Description

The Western Ringtail has a head and body length of 320–400 mm, a tail length of 300–400 mm, and a weight of 820-1100 g (1300 g). It has dark grey brown fur with light patches behind the ears and creamy white, sometimes greyish, underparts. It differs from the Common Ringtail Possum by lacking any rufous colouration. It has a long prehensile tail with a distinctive white tip.

The original description of the western population was as a separate species, Pseudocheirus occidentalis, though later authors classified it as a subspecies of Pseudocheirus peregrinus. Due to contradictory research, a recommendation to reinstate the species status—though a widely held view—has not been published.

Read more about this topic:  Western Ringtail Possum

Famous quotes containing the word description:

    Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.
    Paul Tillich (1886–1965)

    I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)