Australia's gift to princess helps endangered possums

Australia will send a fine woolen blanket embroidered with yellow flowers to Britain's new princess, but the royal baby will also be honored with a more unusual gift - support for a rare mouse-sized possum.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the cot blanket made from Tasmanian merino wool and stitched with the nation's floral emblem, the wattle, will be sent to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after their new baby, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, arrived on Saturday.

In honor of the princess's birth, the government will also donate A$10,000 ($7,826) to a Victorian state wildlife sanctuary to support research into the mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus), an unusual creature that was thought extinct until 1966.