Saturday

Today Mom Opossum and her 10 babies were released back into the wild after a difficult go of it.

Opossums have a tough time in residential neighborhoods and sometimes there just isn’t anywhere for them to go. So what does a mama opossum do when she’s ready to give birth? Well, this one found her way into the walls of a house in Braintree, Massachusetts.

When the homeowners began hearing scratching sounds inside the wall, they knew they had a visitor and were eager to undertake a gentle rescue. They brought mama and three babies to the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth and happily said their goodbyes, wishing the little family well.

“Mom opossum was thin and frightened when she arrived and her babies were very hungry,”said Katrina Bergman, the Center’s Executive Director.

Just the Beginning

But that turned out to be just the beginning of this wild rescue.

“Apparently, the nursing opossum had gotten stuck and her babies were scattered everywhere,” Katrina explains. “The following day 5 more babies were admitted!”

So now mama opossum was fast at work nursing eight babies in the wildlife center. She was eating well and the babies were stable. But again and again, the homeowners returned to the center with more little ones in cardboard boxes.

“Opossum babies continued to trickle in to the hospital every day, until, finally, all 11 were safe and sound with their mom,” Katrina said.

Turns out that locating a 2 inch critter inside a fully constructed house is a treasure hunt for only the most determined. And while many homeowners would have simply let it go, this family continued to search and scour, with unplanned ‘renovations’ to make sure that every last baby had been rescued.

“Today is the best kind of day at New England Wildlife Center,” Katrina said as the opossum mama and her babies were released into an expansive natural habitat.(Source)



Dr. Adamski and Student Interns weigh babies before release.

Definitely ready to go!

Responses to "11 Baby Opossums Saved From Walls of House (Photos)"

  1. Anonymous says:

    They are cute and love how they play "dead". They have 52 teeth and can bite pretty good but usually if left alone, are harmless. they are beggers and like a free handout food situation. I found one in my barn using the auto cat feeder. Their biggest issue is they can carry EPM to horses so anyone with livestock probably wont want them around. Of course you'd have to test them to see if they did or didn't have it and it passes thru feces, then a slug has to carry the feces to a blade of grass and horse ingests it. Sounds far fetched but happens frequently in southern and midwest states.

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