{"id":546898,"date":"2026-03-19T14:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/546898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:20:12","slug":"among-plush-toy-animals-one-fluffy-possum-stood-out-its-big-brown-eyes-were-moving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/546898\/","title":{"rendered":"Among plush toy animals, one fluffy possum stood out \u2013 its big brown eyes were moving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A browsing passenger spotted the brushtail possum on the display shelf at the departure terminal shop at Hobart Airport in Tasmania state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-gmr-5\">The Associated Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">On shelves crammed with cuddly toy native animals in an Australian airport gift shop, one fluffy possum stood out: Its big brown eyes were moving. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">A browsing passenger first spotted a living Australian brushtail possum peering out from among the kangaroos on the display shelf at the departure terminal shop at Hobart Airport in Tasmania state on Wednesday, an airport retail manager Liam Bloomfield said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Above the possum were bilbies, marsupials with rabbit-like long ears, and dingoes, Australia\u2019s native dog. Beside the possum in the kangaroo section were Tasmanian devils, a growling carnivore that inspired the feisty Warner Bros. cartoon character Taz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cA passenger reported it to \u2026. one of the staff members on shift who couldn\u2019t quite believe what she was hearing,\u201d Bloomfield said. \u201cShe then called the [airport] management and said we\u2019ve got a possum in the store.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">A staff member took a video of the possum with her phone before the animal grew wary of the growing attention and left the shop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Airport staff were able to remove the possum from the airport unharmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Bloomfield didn\u2019t know what attracted the possum to the toy shelf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cI\u2019m 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,\u201d Bloomfield joked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">How the possum got into the store and how long it spent there are also unknown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A browsing passenger spotted the brushtail possum on the display shelf at the departure terminal shop at Hobart&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,323,883,913],"class_list":["post-546898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}