A passenger browsing in a gift shop in Hobart airport has stumbled across a remarkable discovery in the plush toy section.

A real living and breathing brushtail possum had decided to join its fluffy friends in the shelves of Lagardère AWPL gift shop on Wednesday morning.

A passenger first spotted the possum peering out from among the toy kangaroos, bilbies, dingoes and Tasmanian devils – a growling carnivore that inspired the feisty Warner Bros cartoon character Taz.

Liam Bloomfield, the retail manager, said staff and customers were delighted.

“A passenger reported it to … one of the staff members on shift who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing,” Bloomfield said.

“She then called the [airport] management and said: we’ve got a possum in the store.”

A spokesperson for the airport said the possum had remained calm as it was safely escorted out of the terminal.

Bloomfield said the store’s staff have been voting on what to name the marsupial.

“We’ll have a little shrine to the possum,” Bloomfield said. “There will be a nice little photo; once it gets a name, we will put a nice little post in front of the store to make sure it’s remembered.”

Brushtails are one of five species of possum found in Tasmania, and are nocturnal – though known to be highly adaptable to a range of natural and human environments.