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Possums are nocturnal animals. Finding shelter and nesting sites is becoming the biggest challenge for these native animals. With the removal of many large old gum trees, possums have to seek shelter in other areas. For Common Brushtail Possums one common alternative is buildings with access to the roof space. Common Ringtail Possums rarely enter a building roof, instead this species builds a nest, or drey, in amongst the dense foliage of trees or shrubs and several metres above the ground.
Responding to this issue, we have decided to repurpose a possum box from recycled wood around our school. we are aiming to give a new home for these possums in a safe and weatherproof design, adding a score of 1 to our schools biodiversity score!
Problem: due to urbanisation, possums are making their homes in our roofs, this is a serious issue as possums nest in roofs, damaging insulation and urinating and defecating, causing stress and unnecessary pain and cost to homeowners. A positive solution to this, is to create safe and sustainable possum habitat.
STEP 1.
Making a start on our possum habitat we first picked our wood from a pile off offcuts and scraps, we found three table tops that we measured and cut to size, using power tools and hand tools such as a circular saw and a tape measure.
STEP 2.
Continuing on with our measured pieces we will be joining them together with pilot holes to ensure no cracking and screws to hold it together, once our possum habitat is constructed we will sand the outside until smooth and consistent.
STEP 3.
Now that we have our possum box held up, sturdy and sanded we will drill a big hole in the front in the middle for the possums to enter, and two small holes at the back for our chain to securely hold it to the tree.
STEP 4.
Now the product is finished we will put the possum box up in a tree somewhere suitable for possums and no where near potential predators
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