With just 13 animals left, time was running out for the Leadbeater’s possums at Yellingbo conservation area.

The critically endangered forest sprites have exacting habitat needs. They prefer cool, wet and dark forest, with large old trees to nest in and a dense thicket of paperbarks and tea trees to dart and hide in.

That type of habitat is vanishing due to the legacy of state logging and bushfires.

“These are not your garden variety possums,” says Dr Dan Harley, a senior ecologist at Zoos Victoria, who has worked with the species for decades.

Gecko-toed and acrobatic, they are sometimes called “forest fairies” for the enchanting way they silently spring between branches at night, dancing in and out view.

“You can imagine them in Tolkien’s Middle-earth,”