Real Possum Sneaks Into Hobart Airport and Blends In With Plush Toys on a Souvenir Shelf
“I’m imagining it saw some of the plush animals that were for sale on the shelf, and it decided to make its home with those.”
A brushtail possum pulled off what might be the most adorable act of camouflage ever caught on camera—sneaking into the gift shop at Hobart Airport in Tasmania, Australia, and tucking itself onto a souvenir shelf among plush toy animals.
The real possum sat perfectly still alongside stuffed kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, koalas and, yes, possum plushies. It clung to the shelf with its paw and stared ahead cautiously, looking for all the world like just another $25 souvenir.
A passenger browsing the gift shop first noticed the intruder around 11:45 a.m. on or around March 18, 2025. Traveler Melissa Oddie captured video of the possum, which was shared by the airport on Facebook before going viral.
The internet, predictably, had a field day.
“You can see the second he knows the jig is up,” one user wrote on Facebook.
“Made in Australia,” another Facebook user commented. “No synthetic materials. Do not machine wash.”
Back in the actual gift shop, the scene was just as entertaining. Airport retail manager Liam Bloomfield told ABC that once word spread, the possum became an instant celebrity.
“We had passengers here, there and everywhere, taking videos,” Bloomfield said. “It was a bit of a mad rush to make sure it was safe and no passengers were disrupted and that the possum got back home.”
Bloomfield described the possum’s visit as a “nice little spike of happiness” during a busy day.
The possum just ‘wanted to blend in’
As for why the possum chose the plush toy shelf as its hiding spot, Bloomfield had a theory.
“I’m imagining 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,” Bloomfield jokingly said to the AP.
The possum appeared calm and unstressed throughout the whole ordeal. An airport spokesperson told Pulse Tasmania that the animal was remarkably unbothered by its surroundings.
“The possum wasn’t stressed at all. It was actually just pretty cruisy really,” she told Pulse.
After the attention grew, the possum eventually left the gift shop on its own and wandered into the main terminal. Gift shop staff had already alerted the airport operations team, and Hobart Airport management safely escorted the animal out of the building without harm.
The gift shop area was sanitized after the possum was removed. No flights were delayed and no passengers were disrupted.
How did the possum find its way into the airport?
How the possum got inside in the first place was called “a true mystery” by staff—though there’s a leading theory.
Hobart Airport is currently undergoing major terminal renovations, with upgrades about one-third complete. Construction work had predominantly been outside the terminal until recently, which may have opened an unexpected entry point.
“We’re obviously doing a lot of work at the moment to upgrade the terminal, so he probably made his way through from one of the worksites,” an airport spokesperson told Pulse Tasmania.
It’s unclear how long the possum spent in the store before it was spotted.
In a world of flight delays, lost luggage and airport food court regret, a possum casually posing as a stuffed animal on a gift shop shelf is the kind of travel moment no one saw coming—and everyone needed.
Sometimes the best souvenirs are the ones that walk in on their own.
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