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Opossum - Blog Posts
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Report from a Wildlife Rehabber:
On February 19 a female opossum was caught in a car engine. The auto repair shop that found her called the Coral Springs Humane Unit to come help. After a long struggle, they were able to remove her. She suffered from several facial lacerations and was very thin.
Since we have a developed community partnership, they brought her to us at the Sawgrass Nature Center. Once in our care, she was treated for the facial wounds, parasites, and her weight was monitored. She healed well, but the weight gain was slow moving. Eventually, she recovered to what would be considered a healthy weight. Only one thing was left - release.
After almost a month in care, on March 13, the female opossum was released back to the wild. Now back out in the wild, she can continue to live out her life in her natural habitat.
What is Baby Season?
Here at the Sawgrass Nature Center and Wildlife Hospital, we see babies year-round. Part of this is due to Florida’s subtropical climate, another part is that some animals (such as raccoons) have babies all year long.
So what is so special about the Spring at the SNC?
Regardless of what specific time of year animal species have babies, a majority of them seem to coincide with the Spring. That means many animal species are having babies all at once in the Springtime. Nature Centers just like ours are flooded with baby birds, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, and more.
For the most part, these are all animals that have many babies at once. The reason they do this is to increase the chances that at least one of those babies will survive to adulthood. For the many of us that have seen abandoned baby animals, we know that the trials of infancy in the animal kingdom can be quite challenging indeed.
This season reminds us why it is so important that we have community resources like wildlife rehabilitators to ensure that these animals are given the highest chance of success possible.
With that in mind, there are some very important things to remember as we March into baby season. If you see a potentially abandoned baby animal, please do not touch it. Rescue is not always the best first step for these animals. Many baby animals are mistaken for being orphaned, when in reality, mom is usually close by watching.
For example, baby birds experience a natural part of their life cycle on the ground by a tree as they develop necessary skills for independence and flight. While mom might not be immediately identifiable, most times, these baby birds are doing exactly what they should be doing.
The best thing to keep in mind is that before you intervene with nature, always call your local nature center first for advice. What may seem like an emergency situation, may actually just be a natural part of an animal’s life cycle.
It is officially baby season at the Sawgrass Nature Center! This week alone we have taken in 36 baby opossums with the goal to release them back into the wild once they are old enough to fend for themselves.
Froggy and opossum say trans rights!!
sometimes you just need a little guy to look up at you with big, pixelated eyes... ✶ tip jar • links
wip of some trash kings 👑 these will be stickers when i'm done! ✶ tip jar • links
