An Australian airport gift shop offered a truly authentic wildlife experience this week when a passenger discovered a living possum nestled among its shelves of cuddly toy native animals.
The unexpected encounter occurred at the departure terminal shop at Hobart Airport in Tasmania on Wednesday, where a browsing traveller first noticed the big brown eyes of an Australian brushtail possum moving amongst the plush kangaroos.
The marsupial had seemingly made itself at home within a display featuring a menagerie of Australia's iconic fauna.
Above the real possum were toy bilbies, known for their long, rabbit-like ears, and dingoes, the country's native dog. Beside it, in the section dedicated to kangaroos, were plush Tasmanian devils, the growling carnivore that famously inspired the feisty Warner Bros. cartoon character, Taz.
A real possum appeared among plush toy animals in an Australian airport gift shop, on shelves crammed with cuddly native toys. pic.twitter.com/YnsNR3G3rY
Liam Bloomfield, an airport retail manager, recounted the moment of discovery on Thursday. "A passenger reported it to …. one of the staff members on shift who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing," he explained. "She then called the (airport) management and said we’ve got a possum in the store."
Before the animal, apparently growing wary of the sudden attention, decided to depart the premises, a quick-thinking staff member managed to capture a video of the unusual visitor on her phone.
Airport staff were able to remove the possum from the airport unharmed.
Bloomfield didn’t know what attracted the possum to the toy shelf.
“I’m imaging it saw some of the plush animals that were for sale on the shelf and it decided to make its home with those. It wanted to blend in,” Bloomfield joked.
How the possum got into the store and how long it spent there are also unknown.
It was unlikely to have been placed there as a prank. Someone would have had to put the possum through X-ray screening to get it into the secure departure terminal area.
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