For the naturalist, Australia is filled with biological wonders, in large part due to its long isolation from other continents. Here, marsupials rule, and they come in a staggering array of forms.
We’re of the opinion that anywhere in Australia makes for excellent mammal-watching. But if we had to choose one of the most incredible wildlife-watching destinations Down Under, it would be Far North Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands. This area is just an hour north of the popular tourist destination of Cairns, gateway not one but two World Heritage sites: the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest.
The Atherton area is a wildlife-lovers paradise, and many rare, endemic mammals species can be seen quite easily, particularly if you’re willing to walk around at night. Unlike other parts of the Wet Tropics, the Atherton Tablelands remained rainforest during a period of climate change several thousand years ago which saw much of the other rainforest dry out. Species that went extinct elsewhere were able to survive here, creating an endemic hotspot.
Read on to learn about some of the region’s marvelous marsupials, along with our advice on where and how to spot them.
Top 10 List
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Green Ring-tailed Possum
Pseudochirops archeri
The adorable – and unusual – green ring-tailed possum. © trevinbne / iNaturalist Shine a light in enough trees in the tropical forest, and you’re sure to see one of Australia’s 27+ species of impossibly cute possums and gliders. These mammals are only distantly related to North America’s less photogenic opossum (emphasis on the O). They show remarkable diversity: One is the size of a mouse. Some have long tongues for lapping up flower nectar (and thus serve as important pollinators).
If we had to pick our favorite possum, it would be the green ring-tail.
These chubby, round marsupials blend in with the forest canopy thanks to their green-hued fur, a visual effect created by fine white, black, and yellow banding. They have a pink button nose, white spectacles around their brown bug-eyes, and a subtle stripe down their spine.
They can sometimes be seen during daylight hours thanks to their habit of sleeping curled into a perfectly round ball on a branch, with their fluffy tail wrapped around their paws and face.
Where to Find: Green ring-tails are relatively common around the Atherton Tablelands and in nearby Julatten. Curtain Fig and Mount Hypipamee National Parks are especially productive for this and other possum species. When spotlighting, look for dim red eyeshine and the distinctive white eye and ear markings.
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Mareeba Rock Wallabies
Petrogale mareeba
Meet the pint-sized Mareeba rock-wallaby. © Doug Whitman / iNaturalist Imagine a small, incredibly agile kangaroo, and you’ve pretty much got the rock wallaby. Some are surprisingly colorful, and all live in colonies in rocky areas. There are currently 17 recognized species, several of which are found in Queensland. The Mareeba rock wallaby, named for the nearby town of Mareeba, is by far the easiest to find and photograph.
The other common macropod species in the area is the agile wallaby (Notamacropus agilis), best identified by their delicate features and cream stripe down the side of their muzzle. They love to feed on the roadsides, so be sure to drive carefully at dawn, dusk, and throughout the night. And if you find a road-killed macropod, be sure to stop and check the pouch for a joey. (As CGS writer Justine Hausheer discovered, young babies can survive losing their mother, with a little help from us.)
Where to Find: Granite Gorge is the place to go for close encounters with Mareeba rock wallabies. And when we say close, we mean very close. (Don’t be surprised to have one pawing at your pant leg.) There are good camping facilities nearby, and the gorge is also a great place to look for dryland birds, including squatter pigeons, great bowerbird, and grey-crowned babblers.
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Northern Quoll
Dasyurus hallucatus
Northern quolls are incredibly elusive, so count yourself lucky if you spot one. © Dan McKenzie / iNaturalist When you’ve had your fill of the rock wallabies at Granite Gorge, head over to the nearby Davies Creek. The rocky outcrops near this lovely riverside camp site are a local hotspot for the northern quoll. Australia has four quoll species, which are members of a family of carnivorous marsupials known as the dasyurids.
The small, spotted northern quoll is found across the northern part of the continent, and typically favors rocky environs. Quolls are notable for their, ahem, interesting reproductive biology. During the breeding season, male northern quolls are so fixated on mating that they spend all of their time looking for females, neglecting food and sleep. After a few weeks of this non-stop sexual frenzy, each and every male quoll keels over dead. The females, meanwhile, live on to raise their young on their own.
Where to Find: Davies Creek is located in the hills east of Mareeba, with a lovely camping area along a creek. While you’re spotlighting, keep an eye out for the endangered northern bettong.
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Daintree River, Herbert River, & Lemuroid Ring-tailed Possums
A Herbert River ringtail, showing the species’ distinctive coloration. © Tony Palliser / iNaturalist Australia’s eastern ringtail possum is a common sight along the east coast, including suburban backyards and gardens. But these three ringtail species — the Daintree River, Herber River, and Lemuroid ringtails — can only be seen on the Atherton Tablelands.
When spotlighting, they’re best told apart by their coloration. Herbert River ring-tails (Pseudochirulus herbertensis) are the most striking of the bunch, with deep chocolate fur, bright white undersides, and a white tail (see photo above). They live at elevations above 350 meters, with two populations divided by the Herbert River Gorge. Their eyes shine a pinkish-yellow in the spotlight.
Lemuroid ring-tails (Hemibelideus lemuroides) come into color morphs: greyish brown and creamy-white, both with exceptionally bright white-yellow eyeshine. They’re found in rainforests at elevations about 450 meters, where they feed almost exclusively on leaves. Lemuroid ringtails are more social than other possums, with monogamous pairs sharing a den throughout the year, often with their juvenile offspring.
A light-morph lemuroid ring-tailed possum. © David White / iNaturalist 
A Daintree River ringtail near Mount Carbine. © Scott Burnett / iNaturalist Daintree River ring-tails (Pseudochirulus cinereus) look similar, but their fur is a lighter, buffy brown and their undersides more white than cream. They’re found at elevations above 420 meters. In a spotlight their eyes glow white, and they have a subtle stripe down the center of their forehead. Like Herbert River ring-tails, their eyes shine a pinkish-yellow in the spotlight.
Where to Find: Mount Hypippamme National Park offers incredible spotlighting. On my first visit, I had both lemuroid and Herbert River ring-tails within three minutes, along with plenty of coppery brush-tailed possums, green ring-tails, and a striped possum.
To see Daintree River ring-tails, you’ll have to make the drive (or trek) up Mount Lewis, located about an hour and a half north of Atherton. There, a dirt track takes you deep into the national park, which offers a smorgasbord of endemic mammals, frogs, and birds. This is also a good spot to see green ring-tails.
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Squirrel & Krefft’s Gliders
Petarus norfolcensis & Petarus notatus
A squirrel gilder. Note the wrinkled membrane running from angle to wrist. © Tim Bawden / iNaturalist Gliders are actually possums that, as their name implies, glide through the air using a special flap of skin between their ankles and wrists. In a textbook example of convergent evolution, this method of locomotion remarkably similar to that of the flying squirrels of North America.
Two similar-looking species are found in the Atheron area. Squirrel gilders are the easiest to spot, in part due to their willingness to visit feeding stations. They can glide up to 80 meters between trees. Krefft’s Gliders are the smaller of the two species, and are less common at the northern end of their range than they are to the south. Both species occupy communal dens in tree hollows, and will readily use nest boxes.
It can often be hard to tell these two species apart, especially when they’re high in the canopy. Squirrel gliders are significantly larger, with a more pointed snout and a very long fluffy tail (like a squirrel) that is as long as their body, often with a black tip. Krefft’s gliders are smaller, with a more blunted snout and a slimmer tip, which is often tipped with white. Squirrel gliders also vocalize with a deep, gurgling chatter, whereas Kreftt’s glider vocalizations are described as barks and chirps.
Where to Find: Chambers Wildlife Lodge, in the heart of the tropical rainforest reserves, has a feeding station where Krefft’s gliders make a nightly appearance. You can watch these little mammals glide, scamper around, and feed from a short distance. The friendly owner, John Chambers, is an expert on local wildlife and can point you to other excellent marsupial spots.
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Torresian Striped Possum
Dactylopsila trivirgata
Torresian striped possums have elongated fingers for prising insects from tree bark. © James Bailey / iNaturalist They might look like arboreal skunks, but the striped possum is just that, a possum. This species has a broader distribution than other Atherton specialities, found from Townsville north to Cape York, and across the Torres Strait in New Guinea.
Striped possums forage in the treetops, where they feed on insects like caterpillars, grubs, ants, and termites. The species has two special adaptations to help them feed: a slender tongue and an elongated fourth finger, which they use to prise wood-boring grubs out from tree bark.
Where to Find: Striped possums occasionally visit the Chambers Lodge feeding station, and can be spot-lit in the forests around the nearby lakes. They’re not as abundant as some of the other possums species, so consider yourself lucky if you spot one.
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Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo
Dendrolagus lumholtzi
Tree-kangaroos are a fascinating arboreal mammal found in Australia and New Guinea.© Duncan Henderson / iNaturalist True, at first glance, this species might resemble a monkey. But they’re kangaroos. Kangaroos that live in trees.
Tree kangaroos have a particularly interesting evolutionary and ecological history. Millions of years ago, a marsupial similar to possums descended from the trees and evolved into the wonderful array of kangaroos and other macropods found across Australia. But then, one of these animals returned to the trees to exploit abundant leaves.
Two species survive in Queensland’s remnant rainforests, with other species living in New Guinea. The Lumholtz’s tree kangaroo is the easiest to find, although it may still take some searching. A second, more cryptic species — the Bennet’s tree kangaroo — can be found to the north, across the Daintree River. (Check out our story about tree kangaroos, including the species that live in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea.)
Where to Find: Wongabel State Forest is a lovely patch of remnant mabi forest that’s also home to multiple tree kangaroos. Other good spots to look are the trees along the creek near Yungaburra, which is also a great place to search for platypus, and the forest near the Nerada Tea Café.
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Musky Rat-kangaroo
Hypsiprymnodon moschatus
Is it a rat? Is it a kangaroo? As it turns out, the musky rat-kangaroo is neither of those species © David White / iNaturalist The musky rat kangaroo is neither a rat nor a kangaroo, although we can understand why Europeans were a bit befuddled by this odd little marsupial. The musky rat-kangaroo is the sole surviving member of its family, which represents the earliest branch of the macropod lineage.
Unlike many of its relatives, musky rat-kangaroos are diurnal, and they spend the day foraging quietly for fruits, invertebrates, and fungi on the forest floor. Walk quietly and keep your eyes peeled on the ground, and you’re likely to spot one before long.
Musky rat-kangaroos have an opposable big toe, which they use to climb into the understory where they construct nests made of leaves. They often cache the fruits and seeds of rainforest trees, playing an important role in spreading these species to new areas and promoting seed germination.
Where to Find: This species is relatively common in forested areas during the day. Check Chamber’s Wildlife Lodge, Lake Barrine and Eacham, Curtain Fig National Park, and Mount Hypipamee.
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Northern Brown & Queensland Barred Bandicoots
Isoodon macrourus & Perameles pallescens
The Queensland barred bandicoot was once considered a subspecies of long-nosed bandicoot. © Philip Griffin / iNaturalist These pointy-nosed mammals are particularly vulnerable to invasive predators like feral cats and foxes. But you can still reliably find two species — the northern brown bandicoot and Queensland barred bandicoot — in northern Queensland forests.
You can often hear them grunting and rooting around leaves before you see them. Bandicoots are diggers, so their pouches, where the young are carried, face backwards so they don’t get filled with dirt. They share this adaptation with other fossorial marsupials, like wombats and marsupial moles. They also have one of the shortest gestation times of any mammal; young bandicoots are born just 12 days after mating.
Where to Find: Look (and listen) for bandicoots around bird feeding stations, gardens and even camp sites. If you’re staying at the Chambers Wildlife Lodge, these species will be relatively easy to find on the hotel grounds and nearby Lake Eachamn and Lake Barrine. I had some of my best views from my raised tent platform at the venerable Lions Den, a pub, restaurant and campground near Cooktown that oozes character (and characters). The fact that I could enjoy excellent mammal watching, cold one in hand, was a nice bonus.
Extra Resources: Jon Hall’s excellent wildlife travel website Mammal Watching is a great resource for the serious mammal watcher heading to Atherton, or anywhere else in Australia.
I live in Cairns and there is something in the palms eating the seeds, it has a face like a possum, size of a rat and has a rat type tail, just wondering what it is.
I’m having trouble identifying a fairly large marsupial I disturbed cutting grass in my yard near( west of) Brisbane I thought it was a potoroo but it ran on four legs it didn’t hop ? It was not a bilby and it did not use its tail to balance it just ran …..It was the size of a big rabbit about 35cm quite heavy in the body( more sausage shaped … its legs were short it’s tail stubby about 7-8 cm long it did not have a very pointy face so I Did not think it was a bandicoot ? It’s coat was brownish grey like many of these types of mammals and it ran like the wind … After clearing the grasses , I noticed a series of tracks and small burrow like areas . Sadly I did not realise there was a mammal living there until I cut the grasses. We have a lot of wallabies in our yard some days but I’ve never noticed this guy before. The neighbouring property is full of red belly black snakes (which worries me sometimes for little guys like this ) and there is a lot of lantana growing there as well for small marsupials , any chance you could tell me what this was .