Where is the white lemuroid possum?
Scientists in far north Queensland suspect the missing creature may be the first extinction of a mammal caused by climate change.
The possum, whose only habitat is above 1000 metres in the moutain rainforests around Daintree, north of Cairns, has not been seen for three years.
Experts fear a temperature rise of up to 0.8C could be responsible.
It would be the first known loss of a mammal and the most significant since the extinction of the Dodo and the Tasmanian Tiger.
"It is not looking good," researcher Steve Williams told The Courier Mail.
"Prior to 2005 we were seeing a lemuroid every 45 minutes of spotlighting at one main site at Mt Lewis," he said.
"If they have died out it would be first example of something that has gone extinct purely because of global warming."
Professor Williams, director of the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change at James Cook University, said it only takes four or five hours of temperatures above 30C to kill the highly vulnerable species.
He said record high temperatures in the summer of 2005 could have caused a massive die-off.
An expedition will be mounted next year in an attempt to locate survivors.
