THIS JUST IN: New anerable species found

by Meg on December 18, 2007

People, Science Daily is reporting a new anerable species of Pocket Pet was just found in the wilds of New Guinea. It’s the tiniest of possums: [check out tentative hands!]

If you’ve read C.O. for a while, you know we’ve had our issues with possum cuteness and struggle greatly with it! [Ehn, ehn!] But this guy takes possums to a whole nutha leva:

Look_im_anerable

Excellent re-reporting, Cuteporter Jen B.!

{ 50 comments }

1 Mimi 12.18.07 at 5:43 pm

This little one just tipped the balance in favor of possums!

2 metz 12.18.07 at 5:44 pm

awwww, you so cannot deny that teensy littel bandit mask.

3 Sabella 12.18.07 at 5:44 pm

Give! Geeve eet to me! I shall pat heem and squeeze heem (geently) and call heem George!

Miniscule pawsies!

4 kim 12.18.07 at 5:50 pm

so cute!!! i just fell out of my chair!! i want one for the holidays!!! :)

5 Pitkat 12.18.07 at 5:58 pm

Now wait a minute. This guy is cute, but the Jerboa isn’t? I mean he’s tiny and all, but I just don’t see how he’s cuter.

6 Cait 12.18.07 at 6:01 pm

He looks so . . . worried! That alone makes him cute.

7 Kasia 12.18.07 at 6:08 pm

he… looks… so… SCARED!

8 rabble 12.18.07 at 6:08 pm

eek! i wantz coecu of those leetle tosies! and of the widdle nosicle! haz he been named yet?

9 A thinker 12.18.07 at 6:10 pm

haha. I knew this guy would show up on C.O. However, the giant cat-sized rat didn’t?? I’m outraged! ;)

10 Maureen G 12.18.07 at 6:10 pm

I saw this little critter on the National Geographic special, he was quite friendly and crawling all over the visitors. Happily for the critter, the visitors don’t expect to be back for many years, nor expect anyone else to visit. They hope to have the area, which is amazingly remote and untouched, declared a national park so that it can be protected forever. Bye little critter! Stay safe in your far away home!

11 Maureen G 12.18.07 at 6:11 pm

I saw this little critter on the National Geographic special, he was quite friendly and crawling all over the visitors. Happily for the critter, the visitors don’t expect to be back for many years, nor expect anyone else to visit. They hope to have the area, which is amazingly remote and untouched, declared a national park so that it can be protected forever. Bye little critter! Stay safe in your far away home!

12 Kate 12.18.07 at 6:14 pm

No COXCU on the tiny pawsies?!?

13 Fegli 12.18.07 at 6:39 pm

He’s the breakthrough the entire possum community has been waiting for! Excelsior!

14 Kiragirl 12.18.07 at 6:39 pm

vote for cuteensy

15 Holly 12.18.07 at 6:47 pm

The ears…the lil hands..tailio! I vote cute!

16 liz 12.18.07 at 6:52 pm

Iz Kewt.
def.

17 Too Late 12.18.07 at 7:03 pm

It’s like a cross between a sugar glider, a possum and a lemur! Hence we should call heem POSHUGEEMUR!

18 Tina Rhea 12.18.07 at 7:05 pm

According to one account, they collected the little possum by hand by taking it off a branch. Hadn’t seen people before, apparently.

19 garlicknots 12.18.07 at 7:12 pm

They also found a new species of rat that is five times the size of a normal rat :O! And the weirder thing is that it wasn’t afraid of humans. I don’t expect to see his picture posted on this website any time soon lol.
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1623920.jpg

20 Kate 12.18.07 at 7:18 pm

OMG his little FACE! Why is he so worried?

21 Amanda 12.18.07 at 7:33 pm

He looks so worried because he’s afraid that now the cuteness has been discovered people will invade the area, capturing his family members to be introduced to the pet trade, and his habitat will be destroyed to build a factory.

22 berthaslave 12.18.07 at 8:03 pm

See? There are new species being discovered all the time! That proves it — global warming is not real!!

(just kidding)

This dude’s pretty cute. The giant rat…I’m reserving judgment, but the pics didn’t exactly scream “cute” to me.

23 zeldapie 12.18.07 at 8:29 pm

This little fella gets MY vote, and so do all possums! Super duper CUTE!

24 Midori 12.18.07 at 8:35 pm

The paws are cute, but look at those foldy lil EARS!! I wanna squish em.

25 anner 12.18.07 at 9:17 pm

hee! he looks like a mouse lemur.

26 stephie 12.18.07 at 9:27 pm

i want it in my pocket!
i want it i want it iiwwaannttiitt!!

27 stephie 12.18.07 at 9:31 pm

it is so not a possums. his wittle tail is so wittle it couldn’t go aroung my pinky let alone a branch.

28 jeanne 12.18.07 at 9:39 pm

We gotta have the Possum Love! (not to be confused with Muskrat Love) With their little (non-muzzle) powsches, they are THEIR OWN Pocket Pets, people! Redonk, no?

29 Kathy 12.18.07 at 9:46 pm

OMG!!! How many rules of cuteness ARE there in this photo?!!!! 4,5?!

30 Theresa 12.18.07 at 9:52 pm

Definite sugar-glider resemblance there. O leetle cutie thang!

31 Theresa 12.18.07 at 9:56 pm

Why Oh why does it keep telling me my comments are flagged as potential spam? I speak nothing but rose and lily petals!

32 Pepi 12.18.07 at 10:49 pm

I spent a happy summer once trapping, measuring and releasing these little pygmy possums [in Australia] for an environmental impact study. They were caught in specially designed metal boxes baited with chocolate, and released unharmed. So unharmed in fact, that we found that we kept catching the same individuals over and over as they were crazy about chocolate.

33 Theresa 12.19.07 at 12:32 am

OMG, cutie leetle thangs you trap with chocolate? That’s too cute to comprehend!!!

34 Snorgle Pup 12.19.07 at 12:49 am

Oh No Pepi! You have destroyed the delicate balance of nature by turning these little mini-possoms into chocolate addicts! Next thing you know they will be sneaking Snickers off the shelves in all the convience stores. They’ll be on the street corners begging tourists for their next fix. Where, oh where will it end!?

35 eoyore 12.19.07 at 1:21 am

I must say…I’m fond of the big rat too! The researchers said he was most friendly :)

A mini chocolate loving possum…sounds like something in a fairy tale! :D

36 Uuuluuu 12.19.07 at 1:32 am

are you people kidding?! the rat was way cuter! He’s all fuzzy and docile, just hanging there…

37 jen 12.19.07 at 1:34 am

i would respond to this anerableness but sadly, i have died due to anerable overdose and therefore cannot comment.

38 Kat 12.19.07 at 4:13 am

Does anyone remember popples? cause he totally reminds me of them!

39 Lorel J 12.19.07 at 4:50 am

I saw a feller like this on 60 Minutes last Sunday. Lives in the Foya Mountains (rain forest, Indonesia) where the amazing Goldfronted Bowerbird and other amazing animals live.

40 Fegli 12.19.07 at 5:11 am

how come i got accused of spamming? i was just trying to say that this little guy is a breakthrough for all possum kind’s plight on cuteoverload!

41 Sammys Mom 12.19.07 at 6:20 am

Kat – of course! I remember Popples!

They could tuck their cute bodies up into their pouches!

LOL to the reference! >^..^<

42 slythwolf 12.19.07 at 7:05 am

It reminds me of the teeniest of lemurs from “Madagascar”, the one who was terrified of the zoo animals and burst into tears.

43 Debra 12.19.07 at 12:11 pm

awwwwwwww, the little guy looks soooooo much like my sugar gliders but without the stripes. I wonder if they crab like suggies do?

44 blair 12.19.07 at 2:09 pm

impossumable!

45 Subhangi 12.19.07 at 2:57 pm

Awwwww, what a cutie.

46 CheshireCat 12.19.07 at 7:36 pm

Oh, his leetle eyes look so worried, I just wanna pat his fuzzy head and tell him everything’s gonna be okaaay

47 Amanda 12.19.07 at 8:24 pm

Ahaha! He does look like the little guy from Madagascar… except his eyes need to be about…. 100 times bigger.

48 Courtney 12.20.07 at 12:42 am

But…. sugar gliders are possums and they are adorable!!!!

I loves some possums.

49 A 12.20.07 at 1:43 am

Saw the wee one on the news!!
He was sooo nervous….poor little mite!

50 icer 12.20.07 at 12:02 pm

Possums and Opossums aka ‘possums are not the same. They are only distantly related to each other. People named the Possums of Australia and New Guinea after the Opossums of the Americas because they are smallish marsupials who climb trees and have long tails. However, Australian possums are far more closely related to koalas, kangaroos and other Australian mammals than they are to American ‘Possums.

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