‘We can’t afford to get this wrong’: relocating Leadbeater’s possums is risky – but it’s their only chance

Modelling suggests that with such a small number left in the wild – and with no success breeding them in captivity – the lowland Leadbeater’s possum will be extinct within a couple of decades. Photograph: Zoos Victoria

As dusk has fallen each night for the last seven days, Dan Harley and Arabella Eyre have turned to each other and said: “They’ll be coming out about now.”

A week ago, the pair executed a risky plan to relocate five tiny Leadbeater’s possums – each about as heavy as an apple and the size of a fist – from their last remaining bolthole in Victoria to a new home in a forest swamp, three hours’ drive away.