Why Is Leadbeater Possums Still Endangered

These amazing creatures were first discovered in 1867, in Gippsland, Victoria. By the early 1950's they were thought of as being extinct, however 10 years later they were rediscovered in the Central Highlands; where a lot of them live today. The main reason why Leadbeater possums are currently endangered are due to destruction of habitat. The logging of trees and forest, as well as, wildfires has led to a rapid decline in the numbers of Leadbeater possums. They were first bred in captivity in the early in 1970s by Des Hackett. In the late 1990s he gave the species that he managed to breed, to Healesville Sanctuary. Around 7 years after this occurred, the last Leadbeater in captivity died. After the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009,
the population of Leadbeater possum has had a massive decline, due to the fact that up to 45% of their habitat was destroyed by the fire. After this disaster, the population has halved to about 1,200 individuals but other estimates say that there could be less than 1,000 remaining. As of 2012, Healesville has been trying to establish a strong breeding program, which has unfortunately been unsuccessful so far, as many of the possums that the sanctuary takes in have pre-existing conditions and tumours.