table of contents

			appreciate a raccoon [team]!
			photo contest deadline september 16!
			prickly hitchhikers
			dining for wildlife-- reservations now open!
			student stories
			opossum 1128 and family-- a patient story
			great gift ideas for september

Foster Care Raccoon  Photo by Christine Margle
Anne Barker and Stephen Shaw offer a newly-admitted raccoon some juvenile food.
Anne Barker cleaning up a baby raccoon. Photo by Stephen Shaw
JoLynn Taylor setting up a puppy pen in her back yard for weaning-age raccoons. Photo by David Taylor
Anne Barker, JoLynn Taylor and Stephen Shaw work on a stronger, larger weaning cage JoLynn designed to fit her space. Photo by David Taylor
Christine Margle (shown here feeding a juvenile squirrrel) specializes in the youngest baby raccoons until they become too old and active to travel to work with her. Photo by Alison Hermance
Monique Pflager has two young children at home, and is able to care for slightly older babies that need a calm place to sleep between feedings. Photo by John Pflager
Doug Fairclough, Rookie of the Year.  Photo by JoLynn Taylor
Joyce Bourassa and Kate Lynch are just two of the Hotline folks who help keep wild babies of all kinds with their own mothers. Photo by JoLynn Taylor
Maggie Sergio and her trained WildCare Solutions team help homeowners with raccoon problems. The better they do their jobs, the fewer animals must be admitted to the clinic. Photo by JoLynn Taylor
WildCare’s medical staff demonstrates a wound treatment to a volunteer. Photo by JoLynn Taylor
Four raccoons close to release age. Photo by JoLynn Taylor
These raccoons are now back where they came from. Photo by Anne Barker

appreciate a raccoon [team]!

October 1st is International Raccoon Appreciation Day (IRAD)! The idea was started by a young California girl in 2002 to appreciate not only raccoons, but all of the local wild neighbors that many of us take for granted. Those of us who work on WildCare’s Raccoon Foster Care Team feel especially honored to work with these exceptional animals – when we aren’t feeling especially overwhelmed with the work, that is! So, while we appreciate raccoons on October 1, WildCare would also like to appreciate our Raccoon Team.

Like each of the 200 different species of wild animal that comes to WildCare, raccoons have very special needs and behaviors that must be taken into consideration in order for us to do the best job for their species. Our hospital staff really values the dedicated volunteers who take the time to go deeper into a given species’ needs, because it helps them diagnose and treat the animals more efficiently. Help with raccoons is especially appreciated, not because raccoons are better than other species, but because they are larger, more work, potentially more dangerous, more easily habituated and usually longer in care than many of the other species we see.

In an average year, WildCare will admit around 100 raccoons, about half of which are babies or juveniles that need foster care. This year, intake started late for the team, probably because of the long wet spring, and the excellent efforts of our telephone staff and WildCare Solutions specialists, who help prevent callers from unintentionally creating wild orphans.

Once the season got going, though, it came on like a freight train. So far, six caregivers, with the help of the medical staff, have fostered about 45 raccoons between the months of May and August. We couldn’t have done it without the dedicated hospital volunteers at WildCare, too, who helped get them ready for release in the last month of their four-month sojourn in WildCare’s custody. We would like to introduce you to the the 2011 Raccoon Foster Care Team and tell you about what they do.

anne barker and stephen shaw, raccoon species managers

Anne and Stephen have volunteered at WildCare since 2003. They live near WildCare, and as a married team, share a commute to Silicon Valley five days a week from San Rafael. On Sunday morning they jointly supervise a shift at WildCare, and while their shift ends at 1pm, during the summer they rarely leave before 3pm. Together, Anne and Stephen monitor all the raccoons at WildCare, adults as well as juvenile orphans too old for formula but too young for adult food. They help build caging, and also do a number of releases.

Stephen works for Microsoft, a corporation that encourages volunteer work by matching their employees’ volunteer hours with financial donations. The donations that Microsoft makes to WildCare through this matching program are used to purchase microchips to help track our released raccoons, opossums and foxes, and for lab work that helps us diagnose illness and improve our success rate.

Because of their arduous commute, Anne and Stephen can only foster raccoons that have begun the weaning process. Anne and Stephen have an understanding landlord in downtown San Rafael. The city location doesn’t bother the raccoons, who are tucked away out of sight in a securely locked cage in the back. Anne and Stephen can give the young animals a bottle in the morning and evening, but during the day, the raccoons have to contemplate other foods that are left for them to find. (This “tough love” period is great for encouraging self-sufficiency in these clever little bandits!)

jolynn taylor, team leader

JoLynn has worked with raccoons since 1995. She worked in the clinic as a Tuesday morning supervisor for many years. As one of only two people on the team who can take all ages, JoLynn often takes newly admitted raccoons to her home to stabilize them and determine who, if anyone else, can foster them. She has a spare room, a protected deck, a weaning-size cage that Anne and Stephen helped to build and a release-sized cage on her property in San Anselmo. Each of these housing options is ideal for a different state of development in raccoons, from babies through pre-release.

Tiny neonate babies can travel with someone who commutes to work (if that person has a quiet space and an understanding boss) until they are about six weeks old. Raccoons ages six to nine weeks need a person who can put a kennel or a cage in a protected outdoor area and begin the messy weaning process. Juvenile animals that are nearly weaned but are still too young for the large outdoor runs at WildCare need a quiet caged area where they can develop and grow.

JoLynn maintains a spreadsheet of all the raccoons in care at any given time, with information on weaning and release dates, vaccine schedules, weights and caregivers. She has a flexible boss, too: WildCare. But she isn’t paid for the raccoon work, for her that’s all volunteer time as it is for the rest of the team.

christine margle, neonate specialist 

Christine has also volunteered at WildCare since 2003, supervises a Friday clinic shift and did a hospital internship in 2006. She works in a law office with a wonderful boss who allows her to bring in raccoons with a heating pad in a small kennel that she puts in a corner of the office, away from other people.

Christine gets up early to drive into San Francisco from Larkspur, but if she has animals under two weeks of age, she also gets up at least once during the night to feed them. After two weeks the babies in her care can go all night between feedings, and she gets to sleep until a luxurious 6am. At about five to six weeks of age, these babies' eyes and ears open, and they shouldn’t travel any longer, so Christine turns them over to someone who will be able to begin weaning them at about seven weeks of age.

Christine has been on the raccoon team since she began volunteering at WildCare and has also been on the squirrel and opossum teams, serving as Opossum Team Leader for several years.

Monique Pflager, returning team member

Monique can also take younger raccoons, but with a fenced yard around her home in San Rafael, she can move the kennels outdoors in the daytime and continue into weaning them. Monique worked as a veterinary technician at Alto Tiburon Veterinary Hospital in Mill Valley, and was a WildCare Clinic volunteer for many years. She completed an internship in WildCare’s clinic in 2005, and she was on the Raccoon Team in 2004-2005.

Her desire to help brought her back to the team this year after she left in 2005 to start a family. Monique and her husband John have  a dog, guinea pig and four parrots, but her skilled animal-care background, organization, experience and training helps her keep them all from interacting with the wild babies in her care.

Monique and John are dedicated members of the WildCare family. Her daughter Cecilia, born in 2005, was a happy WildCare camper this summer, and while Monique and John’s youngest daughter Piper is still a toddler, Monique is able to fit the needs of baby raccoons into her family schedule.

douglas fairclough, raccoon team rookie of the year

Doug is the other Raccoon Team member who can take all ages of young raccoons. Doug began to work with the team in 2010; he has taken several groups of wild babies from bottles through weaning to release. Doug built a large cage for juveniles on his property in Mill Valley, and has helped set up caging at WildCare for raccoons returning to the center from foster care.
 
Releasing groups of raccoons is strenuous work. If we’ve done our job well, they are fierce and snarling when it is time to catch them to load them into crates. If we are really lucky they will urinate on us in the process. At release age, 17-22 weeks old, the animals are at least six pounds each, and usually heavier. Multiply that by six animals being released, and you find yourself having to carry somewhere around 50 pounds of raccoons to a release site you’ve identified ahead of time, based on where they came from.

Doug and the rest of the team are very skilled at this.

the hotline staff

The patient folks who man our telephone lines are not just on the Raccoon Team-- these dedicated, experienced advisors provide the knowledge of natural history information to help people solve conflicts and prevent them from creating orphans of all species through fear or misunderstanding (by trapping a nursing mother raccoon, for example.)

Joyce Bourassa, Kelle Kacmarcik, Winnie Kelly, Kate Lynch, Diana Manis, Barbara Pritchard and selected trained volunteers like Larry Van Cantfort spend hours on the phone talking to people about raccoons. They work on behalf of all the species-specific foster care teams at WildCare, and they help keep the numbers of animals admitted to only the ones that really need our help. Without them, our intake numbers would be much higher, and our success rates much lower.

the wildcare solutions staff

Sometimes telephone advice isn’t enough to assist a caller. Maggie Sergio and her WildCare Solutions technicians also aren’t strictly on the Raccoon Team, but without their work, we’d be overwhelmed with too many animals to care for. Trapping and relocating wild animals is now illegal in California, but some Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators are in business only to make money and don’t always pay attention to the laws. Years ago, trappers used to relocate a mother raccoon and take the babies to a wildlife rehabilitation center. Good laws and hard work have started to change that for the better.

When people call WildCare Solutions for help, our specialists go out to inspect the property and help the homeowner find a humane low-cost solution that protects people, property and animals.

the medical staff

Our hospital staff also works on behalf of all the foster care teams, but the Raccoon Team couldn’t manage the many medical issues that arise without them. Melanie Piazza, Cindy Dicke, Paulette Smith-Ruiz, our Wildlife Technicians, Interns and of course, our volunteer veterinarians, all help the foster care teams when medical issues arise. This year, a feline parvovirus of cats, (Panleukopenia) infected several of our foster care raccoons, killing one and leaving two others with potentially permanent disabilities that may yet make them unreleasable. Our medical staff was there to advise and help pull them through.

They are also there for the more common illnesses that accompany foster care in groups of captive-care wild animals. Medical staff helps with fecal exams, vaccinations, laboratory tests, radiographs, and diagnoses and medications for common illnesses such as aspiration pneumonia and gastrointestinal problems.

appreciation

It takes a lot of people and time to rehabilitate these common native wild animals, starting with the caring people who find and rescue them and all those who help them through the stages of rehabilitation designed to prepare them for release.

International Raccoon Appreciation Day on October 1 is a good time to stop and consider all the wild animals that live among us, especially those some consider “nuisances.”

After all, the exotic animals we see in zoos are often considered nuisances to the people that live with them. Would you really appreciate an elephant as much if he were trampling your garden? Raccoons are little native Americans that remind us not to let familiarity breed contempt.

Happy International Raccoon Appreciation Day!

	Stick-Tight (Harpagonella palmeri) is an attractive wildflower before it goes to seed.
	Italian Thistle is an invasive species. Photo by terragames
	Yellow Star-thistle (Centauria solstitialis) is an invasive species that can injure the mouths of cattle. Photo from  UC Santa Cruz Natural Reserves
	Cocklebur dart game and Cocklebur poodle  Photo from Waynesword
	Close-up photo of a cocklebur by Gary Valle, Photography on the Run
	Electron microscope photo of Velcro by Dee Breger
	Foxtail  Photo from Pet Health Blog in San Jose
	Indian Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) The dried heads of teasel were used to comb wool and probably gave us the word “tease.” Photo by J. E.(Jed) and Bonnie McClellan © California Academy of Sciences

prickly hitchhikers

by Anya Pamplona and Marge Gibbs

You’ve probably been told that hitchhiking isn’t a good idea, but many plants rely on hitchhiking to get from one place to another. We can all relate to coming in from outside after a hike to find tiny, sticky seeds hitchhiking on our clothing and backpacks.

For plants this is a nifty adaptation for seed disbursal. After all, plants can’t just get up and walk to a new location! For non-hitchhiking plants, seed disbursal is accomplished in a variety of other ways. Some move to new locations via wind, water or gravity. Plants with fleshy fruit are eaten, and the seeds pass through animals' digestive systems to be dropped in other locations. Some animals bury seeds, like squirrels with acorns, and these sometimes grow into new plants.

hitchhiking seeds: great adaptation or biodiversity threat?

While being able to move its seeds from one location to another is desirable from an individual plant’s point of view, it can cause economic and health issues as a result of loss or change in the biodiversity of a region. An example of an unwanted plant in the Bay Area is the Italian Thistle. These thistles have been extremely successful in expanding their range, out-competing native plants. Another example is the Star Thistle. As it takes over grasslands, it can inflict injuries to the mouths of grazing cattle.

super hitchhiker

Palmer's Grapplinghook (Harpagonella palmeri) is a low-growing annual found in southern California, Baja California Norte, and on offshore California islands. The sepal has five to nine spines, each with tiny, hooked barbs. The generic name Harpagonella is derived from the Latin word “harpago” or grappling hook. Like a grappling hook, the burs become deeply embedded in clothing and fur and are practically impossible to pull out. 
 
Palmer's Grapplinghook belongs to a large family of attractive wildflowers and several very effective hitchhikers. One such family member is a little blue wildflower called Forget-me-not. Hikers have undoubtedly noticed this plant's little seed pods attached to their shoelaces or socks. However, the Stick-tight seeds get the highest award for stubbornness. These seeds can render a pair of socks worthless!

worldwide hitchhikers - nature’s velcro

Cockleburs (Xanthium sp.) produce hundreds of little football-shaped burs covered with stiff, hooked spines. The prickly burs hook into your clothing like Velcro and become tightly attached. Often the burs become entangled in animals' fur, and, in the case of pets, must be cut out of their fur. These remarkable burs have enabled the cocklebur plant to hitchhike all over the world.

Cockleburs belong to the enormous sunflower family, the largest known plant family with approximately 24,000 species. Another related hitchhiker in the sunflower family, called burdock (Arctium lappa), is equally adapted for clinging to animals and objects. Like the cocklebur, its hooked prickles are very difficult to remove.

Other hitchhikers include Bur Clover (Medicago hispida) and Fuller's Teasel (Dipsacus sativa). Teasel bristles are stiff enough to raise and straighten (tease) the nap on woolen cloth. The large, spiny heads of teasel were used in carding wool in early days. The heads were split and mounted on belts or rollers that moved over the wool.

Cockleburs have literally hitchhiked across Europe and North America. In some areas farmers and ranchers consider the plant to be a troublesome weed. But there may be at least two interesting and fun uses for cockleburs. Because they easily attach to cloth material, they can be used as “darts” in a cocklebur dart game, and sixteen of the spiny burs can be glued together to form a perfect little poodle.

the remarkable invention of velcro

One day in 1948, an amateur Swiss mountaineer and naturalist, George de Mestral, went on a nature walk with his dog through a field of hitchhiking bur plants. He and his dog returned home covered with the burs. Curious, Mestral went to his microscope and inspected one of the burs. He saw numerous small hooks that enabled the bur to cling to the tiny loops in the fabric of his pants. George de Mestral raised his head from the microscope and smiled thinking, “I will design a unique, two-sided fastener, one side with stiff hooks like the burs and the other side with soft loops like the fabric of my pants. I will call my invention “velcro,” a combination of the words velour and crochet. It will rival the zipper in its ability to fasten.”

backyard hitchhikers

Whenever your pet goes out in the summertime, he or she might come back with unwanted hitchhikers. These can be ticks, burrs or grass seeds, but one of the worst is the foxtail. Whether the foxtail is in the ear, the nose or entangled in fur, it can cause your pet major discomfort (and your wallet, too)!

A foxtail is a cluster of spike-like seeds on a grass, making it a type of seed dispersal unit. The name “foxtail” is applied to a number of grasses that have bushy spikes that resemble the tail of a fox. Not all of these are hazardous. The hazardous ones are in the genus Hordeum, and are also called “wild barley.”

What seems like a diabolical plot to use animals as unwitting transporters is simply a whim of natural selection. Once the seed gets snagged in fur, it can only move one way: deeper into the fur, not even stopping at the skin. If lodged between the toes or in the ear canal, it can continue to burrow further. Signs in pets that the seeds have burrowed into the skin might include licking their paws, head shaking or a sudden onset of sneezing, if the foxtail has gotten up their nose.

To save your pet from undue suffering, you should remove any foxtails before they burrow in. All you have to do is to check your pets by running your hands over their fur, paying special attention to their ears and paws. They’ll love getting a full body massage while you search for the foxtails!

While hitchhiking plants, much like hitchhiking people,  might be deemed undesirable, we should all take the time to admire the amazing evolution of plants that has allowed them to become mobile and disperse themselves around the world. So the next time you're picking little seeds from your clothing, take a moment to appreciate these plants' adaptability.

Caitlin Bishop and Amy Blower at the Heart of Marin Awards luncheon where they were recognized for their service. Photo by Karen Wilson
Ashley Macholz helps care for baby rodents. Photo by Kelle Kacmarcik
Student Volunteers Erica Rudolph and Cecilia Winfield are dedicated to helping the Wildlife Ambassadors, even in the pouring rain. Photo by Melanie Piazza
Andrew Shaver, Vivian Skinner and Nick Perazzo are weighing smelt to feed the Wildlife Ambassadors in the courtyard. Photo by Mary Pounder
Doing dishes, mopping floors and cleaning cages are all part of the fun. Nick Perazzo and Pancho Alverez are enjoying some time outdoors. Photo by Mary Pounder
Maya Sampath introduces two young nature lovers to Mojave, the Desert Tortoise. Photo by JoLynn Taylor
Savannah McCoy, Samantha Helbig and Miles Kihara prepare food in the clinic. Photo by JoLynn Taylor
Wildlife Ambassador programs provide a personal face to wild animals and the issues they face in sharing the environment with people. Photo of Stephanie Helbig and Acorn Woodpecker, Blue, by Alison Hermance

student stories

Our teen Student Volunteers and Student Interns have become an integral part of WildCare in the ten years since this education program began. In the Wildlife Hospital, the Student Volunteers see to the laundry, dishes and ward-cleaning duties, as well as helping to prepare diets for the patients, and caring for our educational animals. The program provides a great range of experience for these young people and teaches them about caring for animals and the animals' natural history, and it helps them develop qualities of character, such as responsibility and organization. This year, Education Program Specialist Mary Pounder asked for stories from former Student Volunteers to let us know how the experience affected them.

caitlin bishop

Imagine for just a second that you are once again a child, watching pelicans being thrown fish into their parachute mouths, an opossum being trained to stand on its hind legs in order to receive a tasty fish treat, or a baby bird straining to get the last of what’s left in a plastic feeding syringe. Would you remember what you saw and still feel affected by it 20 years later? Would you carry what you’ve seen with you for the rest of your life?

I’ve known about WildCare my entire life, and can remember my mother carrying me in her arms and showing me the beautiful educational opossum, Opal, being walked up and down several stairs that led to the museum inside. I had never seen an opossum before, in addition to the other animals shown in the open courtyard, and had certainly never seen so many taxidermied animals that sat silently on shelves and hung from wires stretching across the walls of the museum. I thought it was the most interesting thing I had ever seen, and anticipated the day when I would be able to work inside WildCare’s hospital.

When the day finally came and I began my volunteer work, I was taken by surprise. I had no idea that there was so much work – laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping, cage cleaning – that went on behind this kind of organization. I learned quickly, and with the help of a wonderful manager and supervisor, was soon helping out the medical staff with various hands-on jobs.

WildCare became a passion of mine, and I found myself reporting everything (and maybe the things they didn’t want to hear) that went on there to both my family and my friends. I soon became “the naturalist” among my peers and was listening to stories from my friends about heroic animal-saving stories almost weekly.

While my supervisors were teaching me about how to properly clean a cage, I was learning from the many injured, orphaned and sick animals that were brought into the hospital, exactly what kind of environmentally friendly world we live in. I’ve learned that glue traps, rat traps, rat poison, insecticide, soda 6-pack rings, domestic animals and human carelessness are only a few of the many fatal obstacles that wild animals face in a human’s world, those of which have become harder and harder to overcome as we continue to industrialize.

Simple changes in lifestyles can be made that can change the natural world around us and how we take up space, and I feel that WildCare offers these solutions in the most powerful and influential of ways. I know that I have made significant changes in the way I live, and have offered these changes to many of my friends and family.

Although we run most of our hospital off of donations and are not funded by the government, we are a strong and wonderful organization that has seen thick and thin, and will hopefully live on as not only an establishment, but as a strong influence on our community, forever striving to help people understand what it’s like to see the world from another angle.

I feel very lucky to have found an organization such as this one where I feel I really fit. I was also extremely honored to receive a Student Volunteer Heart of Marin Award for my work with WildCare. I plan to carry the knowledge I have gained from WildCare throughout my college years, and for the rest of my life. I hope that more people do the same.

maya sampath

My hands shake as I draw up the liquid and replace the large needle with a tiny one. The Medical Staff person, Paulette, reaches into the box and pulls out a tiny ball of fluff about the size of one finger. Wings the size of a fingernail flap uselessly and a high-pitched chirping escapes its beak as the bird attempts to launch itself from her hand. She gently pins it to the table with her thumb and says, “You’ve done this before. There’s no need to worry.”

“Yeah, but never on something this small.” I worry anyway.

“Well, you have to try sometime...” she responds.

Three newborn quail had come in an hour ago. Their home had been destroyed by a child throwing rocks, and they arrived on the verge of death, stone cold and limp with heads hanging to the side and eyes closed. Paulette told me that to keep them alive, I would have to warm them up. I set up a box with a heating pad underneath and wrapped them in warm towels. I had to rotate the towels every two minutes, heating them in the microwave before swapping them to make sure they stayed warm.

The quail slowly began to open their eyes and stir and after an hour they were stable enough for fluids and meds. I lean over the table and carefully push the needle into a quail’s back, under the feathers but above the muscle and push the plunger down creating a small bubble of warm electrolytes under the skin.

 “Perfect,” Paulette said as she scooped them back into the box. “When they first came in I didn’t think they would make it. Now, I think they will be releasable in a few weeks.”

As she walked away I marveled at her words. I had started volunteering at WildCare in seventh grade, washing dishes and cleaning cages, and now I was able to evaluate patients, administer medications, and give injections. Taking care of those quail had let me see, for the first time, how I was making a difference.

Three little quails may not have been human lives, but their lives were just as important to them as ours are to us. That is what I am always trying to show people. In addition to my duties in the hospital clinic, I also spend time educating visitors and children about the importance of respecting and taking care of all of nature.

Wildcare treats injured or orphaned wild animals, and the majority of them are there because of humans, however unintentional the damages may be. My goal, by sharing such stories and introducing the public to some of the animals, is to make people aware of the impact we have on the environment.

These days it is especially important to understand that we can learn to coexist with the rest of the earth. By informing the public that small careless acts, such as that of the child throwing rocks and destroying the quails’ nest, or the improper disposal of a plastic soda ring that entrapped a fox, we can show them the consequences in a way that is more effective than dire predictions about the future.

Pioneering environmentalist and WildCare inspiration Mrs. Elizabeth Terwilliger said, “Teach children to love nature. People take care of what they love.”

And that is exactly what I try to do. Our generation and the next will need to take steps to fix the problems and will not be motivated by fear. They will be motivated by learning to care. 

	Opossum 1128 showing her impressive set of 50 teeth to warn us that she can take care of herself. Photo by Kim Sandholdt
	Sutures were needed to close the torn pouch.
	Foster care gives the pups time to develop and build strength and climbing skills. Photo by Kim Sandholdt.
	Opposable “thumbs” on their hind feet enable opossums to climb well. Photo by Mary Pounder
	Up to 13 embryos the size of a bean may develop in an opossum’s marsupial pouch. Photo by Mary Pounder
	Bean-sized embryos don’t stay that size as they continue to grow in an opossum mother’s marsupial pouch, which functions as a kind of “outdoor uterus.” Photo by Mary Pounder
	Clinging and climbing is instinctual; when baby opossums outgrow their mother’s pouch, they just climb onto her back. When she stops to forage everyone gets off and forages, too. When mom leaves, whoever misses the bus has just found his new territory. Photo by Mary Pounder
	Not dead; just hoping you’ll lose interest. Photo by Mary Pounder
	“Nature’s Little Garbage Men” aren’t averse to indulging in pet food left outdoors. Photo by JoLynn Taylor

opossum 1128 and family

by Kim Sandholdt, Opossum Team

A female opossum was caught by a dog on July 26, and brought into its owner’s house. The opossum, following her natural instincts, played dead ("played ‘possum"), and the homeowner put her body in the trash. The following morning a workman discovered the opossum, still very much alive in the garbage pail, and called the Marin Humane Society. MHS brought her to WildCare with one pup still in her pouch. Paulette Smith-Ruiz was the Medical Staff person on duty, and she advised the officer that there is rarely only one opossum offspring. He returned to the site to search for more.

The mother and baby were both covered in blood and it took some time cleaning to see the extent of the injuries. During this time the officer returned with three more baby opossums. The pup in the mom’s pouch was removed and placed with her siblings in an incubator. These four babies were between 38 – 42 grams (about 1-1/2 oz.) each, a viable age for opossum pups to go to foster care.

extensive wound treatment for opossum 1128

The mother had three deep puncture wounds on her right hip and flank; the right side of her pouch was ripped open, she had some mammary gland damage, and x-rays revealed a dislocated right hip and separated fibula.  She was warmed, given subcutaneous fluids, antibiotics and pain meds, then allowed to rest and stabilize over night.

The next day Medical Staff sutured the torn pouch and her other numerous injuries. After several weeks in care, her wounds had healed. #1128 appears to have a fully functioning pouch and the scar is almost invisible.

foster care for opossum pups

Because of the injuries to the mother's pouch and mammary glands, as well as the fact that she was on pain medication and antibiotics, the pups were put in foster care with me, and I transitioned them from mother’s milk onto opossum formula. The female baby that arrived in the pouch needed six sutures to close up a wound on her chest.

Another injured female pup lost a portion of her prehensile tail. While a prehensile tail is a handy device if you’re an opossum, it’s not necessary for survival. With five fingers on the front “hands,” an opposable thumb and four toes on the rear foot, she will still be a very adept climber.

Fortunately for baby opossums, everything they need to know is instinctual. Marsupials are an ancient order of mammal. Like reptiles, they do not have to be taught how to survive, although unlike most reptiles, they are supported for a period of time by the mother.

This is not a low intelligence level. Opossums rarely forget. They don’t have a great need for parental teaching, but what they learn, they retain. Some reports indicate they have cognitive learning skills on a par with pigs; opossums rank higher than rats and cats in maze tests. As an opossum caregiver I can attest that they do learn and can have amazing memories.

Mama #1128 and the pups won’t need to be reunited for release. Their instinctual programming doesn’t require much social bonding. Her pups are now of the age at which they would normally start to disperse from her. The pups are very healthy and will do well on their own.

who are these guys?

Virginia Opossums are our only North American marsupial. Marsupials are primitive mammals that carry live young in their pouch, called a marsupium. (The kangaroo pouch is the most well-know example.) The gestation period for the Virginia Opossum is the shortest of any mammal: 12½ days. Embryos the size of a jelly bean are born and migrate from the birth canal up into the marsupium. There they will stay for about three months.

Opossums are very docile and really do not like confrontation, but they have some impressive defenses. They have a mouthful of 50 very sharp teeth, the most of any land mammal in North America. They attempt to bluff with a fierce look and hiss to drive you away; if that doesn’t work, playing dead is an option. If all else fails, they will defecate on you, so beware!

Opossums are native to Southeastern North America. They were introduced into California in the late 1800s by hunters for food and fur. A crafty few escaped and proliferated across the state, and we are lucky now to share our space with them.

lucky? why?

Opossums are transient and generally keep moving while maintaining a territory of about 2-3 miles, always near water.  These animals are always following their noses, looking for the next meal, because as Mary Pounder, another WildCare opossum specialist will tell you, while other animals “eat to live, opossums live to eat”!

Opossums are our little garbage men. Like other scavengers like Turkey Vultures and skunks, they help to keep our environment clean. They are omnivores, which means they eat both meat and plant foods. Although opossums have an incredible sense of smell and amazing hearing, they have very poor eyesight and actually see no color. Sadly, sometimes they trot out into the middle of the road to eat a simply delectable meal of carrion, and become road kill themselves.

These little mammals are very clean; they bathe like a cat after eating and before going to sleep. Possibly because their normal body temperature is only 94 degrees, they are resistant to many viral diseases such as rabies, distemper, parvovirus and feline hepatitis, so they can eat carrion and not spread disease.

Didelphis virginiana, the Virginia Opossum’s scientific name, is resistant to the venom of pit vipers, like the rattlesnake. It has been found that they have a special protein in their blood serum; this proteinase inhibitor in their blood binds to and neutralizes the venom. The active ingredient of LTNF (a ten-amino acid peptide) has been sequenced and synthesized. It can now be manufactured in abundance, and may prove to be a therapy against many toxins to help save human lives!

living with opossums

Opossums are among the most benign of our local wild neighbors, and do a great service to the environment and the people they share it with. Here are a few tips to live well with them and to let them get on with their work.
 
• Dogs and cats can cause significant harm to opossums, and should be closely monitored for the safety of both pets and opossums.

• Opossums do play dead, so if you are unsure if an opossum is alive or dead, please call WildCare or the Marin Humane Society.

• If you see a dead opossum on the road and can safely get to the animal, please check to see if it is a female and if there are pups in her pouch. Breeding season is from the end of January to August. We generally see babies from March through September.

• Opossums are not diggers or chewers and typically will not cause damage to property. They usually come along after the fact and catch the blame for simply following their nose to investigate what another animal started.

• They will eat all of the slugs, snails and other pests that invade your garden and are very important in rodent and insect control.

• They will occasionally kill and eat rattlesnakes; maybe not a bad creature to have hanging around the back yard after all!

great gift ideas for september

	Gift Memberships
The Perfect (and Eco-friendly) Lunchbox Just in time for the new school year, choose a fun, eco-friendly and personalizable Goodbyn lunchbox! WildCare logo-wear also makes a great gift! Choose from a cool selection of caps, tees and sweatshirts on our Shop page, or visit WildCare and choose from an even larger selection!	The Gift of Wildlife When you give a WildCare gift membership, your gift recipients will receive all the benefits of WildCare membership as well as the knowledge that, as WildCare members, they help create a healthy and sustainable habitat for humans and animals alike. What a perfect gift!	Adopt a Raccoon Or choose another extraordinary wild animal to adopt for that someone special! Your gift recipient will receive an art-quality photo of your chosen animal, a personalized certificate of adoption and a page of informative natural history.