Photographer Ben Alldridge captured the first record of a marsupial whose fur glows at night. The photos were taken in southwestern Tasmania, Australia. Alldridge stumbled upon the creature while conducting a study to document the animals’ nocturnal behavior.

The wild marsupial, whose scientific name is Dasyurus viverrinu, has brown or black fur and white spots. The animal’s fur absorbs ultraviolet light and emits a vibrant blue glow, a phenomenon called biofluorescence.

An animal that glows in the dark may seem like something out of a movie, but it’s not that uncommon. Polar bears, armadillos, and many species of fish have been found to emit this glow; the most famous one is the flashlight fish. In 2025, German scientists successfully altered a spider’s DNA so that it could spin red fluorescent webs. Despite being widely documented, these phenomena are still not fully explained by science.

The photo of the glowing marsupial earned the Australian photographer the Beaker Street Scientific Photography Award, and the images were exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum.

Sources: Beaker Street, G1, Zero Hora, Gizmodo, Folha de S.Paulo, and CNN.

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