In the indoor Australian “walkabout” the animals were exhibited in a series of open grottos, which the public viewed from an elevated walkway winding around between the exhibits. The barless enclosures were fine for the wombats and Tasmanian devils, but they were no match for the agile brush-tailed possums. The possums jumped effortlessly in and out moving freely between the various exhibits.
Visitors tended to congregate in front of the Tasmanian devil exhibit to get a look at the almost legendary creature that most of them knew only from the huge, aggressively violent creature called a Tasmanian devil in the well-known cartoon series.
Due to the devil’s shyness, however, and the possum’s desire to roam, the animal they were seeing was more often than not a brush-tailed possum. The visitors often expressed surprise that the “devil” was so small. And they were often more surprised when the animal jumped out of the exhibit, landing on the railing in front of them.
Keepers said that the possum seemed to wait until there was a large crowd in order to cause the greatest possible panic.