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Project Noah Nature School
Trichosurus vulpecula
Mother and baby. The mother is about the size of a cat
Nocturnal. Five possums including these two lived in my garage among the art supplies for about five years. They fought ferociously to have the spot in the roller door of the garage
. They consisted of several generations who all knew me well enough to play when they saw me passing at night. Water was always available although food was only offered when they asked which was rare. This entire family was poisoned by an old man who though his single mango tree entitled him to the right
Spotted on Mar 29, 2006
Submitted on Dec 4, 2012
8 Comments
:-) (saintly but mischievous smile)
Stephen-Thank you Hopefully sites like this will help open the food gates of people's minds and help them yearn to learn and appreciate the amazing variety of life we're so fortunate to share this planet with.
Lol Cammie. Janelle. I have just shed tears as I read your story. The pain of such losses creeps in our deepest souls and the murderous intent of lesser humans scours our ability to be the loving humans we tend towards and turn our little oasis of life into burned earth. My heart goes you to you also
So cute! I wish our possums were less creepy. Lol
StephenSolomons-That rips my heart out. I had something similar happen with my favorite female Chipmunk. She was my buddy for three years until a neighbor's dogs got a hold of her and broke her back. She came pulling herself by her front paws to me and there was nothing I could do other than pick her up and give her some small peace in her final minutes. When someone put poison in our property I found a bloated, dying prairie vole but everything else simply and completed disappeared...Our yard went from a bustling wildlife city to a desert wasteland in a matter of 24 hours. Anything and everything that ate peanuts, gone: woodpeckers, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, striped gopher, voles, shrews, etc... The first year it happened we thought maybe we got a bad batch of peanuts from the elevator. The second year I had my doubts but when it happened again the third year, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I had a killer on my hands and that they weren't just putting out poison, they had to be putting it in our yard or into our feed bags. I stopped putting out peanuts on a daily basis and started locking the area where we store our feed. The security lights didn't seem to stop them but what they did almost stopped me from feeding wildlife all together. It killed me to think they came into our yard and trusted us only to die in the end. I can't even imagine the ripple affect their poisons had on other wildlife that may have eaten the dying ones or the pain and agony that were their final moments. If only people could learn to love as much as they hate or fear... Again, I'm so very for your agonizing and terrible loss. My heart truly goes out to you.
Cute. Very different from our opossum
It was terrible. They came to me for help when they were dying and some died writhing at my feet. I will never fail to get tears in my eyes when I think of how little I could do
OMG! I'm so sorry for your loss. I've had poisoners attack wildlife on our private property as well. I wish people would learn more about their local wildlife and would try to keep an open mind/heart instead of resorting to murder or extreme tactics to get their ways. We had possum coming to our home back when I lived in the Twin Cities area. I saw them coming to my beef suet so tried putting out bananas, boiled eggs and peanuts for them. One had a tail that had turned black on the tip. I think due to frostbite, perhaps? They're such amazingly calm and gentle creatures. I can't believe anyone would want to do them harm.