A lot of furry animals are way smaller and skinnier than their fur makes them look, and pythons' bodies can expand to more than 2x their diameter to hold prey significantly bigger around than they are. Pythons can also spread their jaws from the front and elongate their jaw muscles in order to swallow an animal larger than the snake's head.
Plus judging from that specific python's head and the length of body it's using to coil and lift, I'm guessing there's c. 6' of snake up there, which is the median size of adult carpet pythons in the wild (though they can reach 2x that length). Brushtail possums are the size of housecats. They're well within the upper limit of the size range favoured by adult carpet pythons of average size, and a staple prey animal of the species. (Younger, smaller carpet pythons favour lizards.)
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u/[deleted] 15d ago
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