I do n’t know if our backyard has become a breeding priming for opossums or what .
A couple month ago , we found ababy opossumin the chicken henhouse . We guess he ’s an orphan , as we ’ve seen him a few more sentence scrounge alone at night . We ’ve seen a handful of adult possum as well , and though we ’re never sure if they ’re the same ones , at least one or two have taken up mansion in our yard and up our Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . And it seems those phalanger have been gettin ’ in use .
Last week , we set out our Havahart traps to entrance a couple of destructive squirrels we ’ve been control around the garden . correctly aside , we caught an possum and eject him that night . We readjust the trap … and yesterday , we construe that we ’d caught another critter .
But upon closer review , we found another possum in the hole … and not just one phalanger , but a mama phalanger withsevenof her babies !
The child must have been clinging to her back while she was tramp the yard , and they ’d all become trapped together when she locomote whiff for our treats . Or had they all been nuzzle inside her pouch ? ( Opossums are the only pouched mammal in North America ; I was intrigued by this fact and discover this fascinatingphotoof ‘ possum whelp in their female parent ’s pouch . )
Each babe was about 5 inches foresighted from nose to rump , with tiny pink noses and diminutive pinkish hand , and tenderize little ears and tails . They were the most adorable things I ’d ever seen … Ialmostwanted to keep them as favorite !
All seven babe were jam on top of each other , clinging tightly to their mama or their siblings , yawning and squirming and sleeping . Such precious little things .
These two sibling were especially honeyed .
We gave them a modest bowl of water and covered the coop with a towel to keep them calm . That night , we released the family in a nearby nature reserve . Since it ’s still mating time of year for the opossum , I question how many more babies we ’ll see this summertime ( and hopefully , not in our traps ) .
