In the Classroom

Activity

Read a Tale of Two Honey Possums:

After reading, introduce and discuss with students the following facts:

1. Where do Honey possums live?

In the south-west corner of Western Australia (see Figure) – nowhere else in the world.

2. What do they eat?

Honey possums eat only pollen and nectar from flowers. They have favourite flowers from bushes such as banksias, grevilleas, hakeas, and eucalypts. Flowers from these plants produce a lot of nectar and pollen. Do students remember where the pollen and nectar are located in a flower? And discovered how sweet it is? (Activity 6 – the Bush as Food).

3. How do they eat?

Honey possums have no teeth for chewing. These have disappeared or turned into stumpy pegs, because for millions of years they have been drinking nectar, and brushing pollen into their mouth, with their brush-tipped tongue. It is very long, about 2cm. (Demonstrate).

4. How much do they eat?

A honey possum that weighs 9g eats 7ml nectar and 1g pollen every day[3]. That means it eats nearly as much as it weighs! You might relate this to the food a student eats and their weight.

5. What does the Honey possum do if there is not enough to eat?

When there are not many flowers, the Honey possum has no energy to search for food; it curls up (as in the photo) and has a short sleep, called ‘torpor’.

6. How does the Honey possum wake up?

They shiver, and shiver, and finally uncurl their body.

7. How many babies does a mother Honey possum have?

Two or three about twice a year (if she gets enough food).

8. How big are the babies when they are born?

The same size as a grain of rice. Distribute rice grains amongst students.

9. Where does a Mother Honey possum put her babies?

In her pouch. That’s where her nipples are where she feeds the babies on milk.

10. Another name for a pouch is ‘mar-soup-ee-um’ (marsupium).

That’s why Honey possums are called marsupials (mar-soup-ee-als). Can students name any other marsupials? (see Glossary).

11. Are Honey possums important in the bush?

Yes. When they travel from flower to flower, looking for food (remember what they eat?), they pass pollen grains from one flower to another. You will remember that that is how seeds are made. So, Honey possums are helping to grow the plants that give them their food!

12. What can hurt a Honey possum?

A feral cat roaming at night. An owl looking for something to eat, bushfire, and burning or clearing the Honey possum’s food plants.

Teacher Note: It is important to create a Honey possum Word-Wall with all new words.