Ok, brace yourselves. I here to help brighter your day with Cuscus' - who are here to grace your twitter feed and look badass eating flowers (and I don't mean the semolina kind) - all these pics are from the internet - alas Cuscus live far away from me in lutruwita.

Most cuscus live in Papua New Guinea - but the common spotted cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus) also lives in Far North Queensland. But there are 18 species of these guys - spanning 2 genus' (Phalanger + Spilocuscus). - pic is of a common spotted cuscus - also called a white cuscus.

The western-world is still finding out about these little dudes - this new species (blue-eyed spotted cuscus [Spilocuscus wilsoni]) was described only 10 years ago.

But of course - this doesn't mean scientists haven't known about them for AGES. Communities in PNG have long respected and understood these animals and their ecosystems - this is the Talaud bear cuscus found only on the quite small Salibabu Island.

They are pretty sleepy little mates - often doze during the day in tree hollows (or sometimes spread out over palm leaves) and get around solo in the night - hunting for mostly fruits + insects, sometimes eggies!

On an island called Sulawesi there are two species; the bear and the dwarf cuscus. Sulawesi is a VERY special place. It's the largest island in the Wallacea region, which is a transition zone between Asian and Australian wildlife. But in Sulawesi - they meet.

In other words... only in this handful of islands do you find monkeys and marsuipals living side-by-side!

You might recognise the name Wallace - thats Alfred Russell Wallace - who famously figured out evolution by natural selection in this region - which is awesome - but we mostly get taught about what white western males 'discover' in ecology. And there must be a greater narrative.

Here is another example where First Nation Ecology perhaps could inform us so much more - but that has been missing from the narrative in the cuscus' story. But efforts are being made to right that wrong. And hopefully these crazy marsuipals will be around for many more years.

Also they have the CRAZIEST tails!! They are prehensile (meaning they can grab stuff - and lack fur but have papillae type bumps - THE SAME AS ON YOUR TONGUE. And look - i'm not saying they can taste with their tail - but how do we know they CAN'T?!?! (they probably cant').

I'M* oops I got too excited about this thread I forgot to spell words correctly...