The Gail E. Abrams Wildlife Ambassador Fund

Meet Piedmont Wildlife Center’s newest ambassador, Olive the Opossum! Olive will be one year old this Spring. Last year, she was found with scratches on her head and a bad eye and believed to have been a victim of a cat-attack. Due to the injuries of her eye, she was deemed non-releasable and was looking for a place where she could be an ambassador for all the wild opossums. She found the right place!

Penelope, our opossum ambassador that lived with us from 2014 - Dec 2017 had a great life, but her body eventually gave out. Penelope had some severe neurological issues that made it hard for her to balance, so she wasn't a climber. As soon as Olive showed up, she reminded us how agile opossums can be! One of our educators said "Even I am suprrised by how well they can climb! She even hangs upside down!"  She can hang upside down, but not by her tail like all the storybooks tell us. Did you know that’s actually a myth? Opossums are too heavy to be supported just by their tails. However, they have prehensile tails – which means they can use it like an extra arm. This tremendously helps their ability to balance while climbing on small limbs to find food, like your bird feeder.

Olive will be a great ambassador for PWC. As educators, we’re always surprised by how many people do not like, and even fear, opossums! They are rat-like with their skinny, naked tails. They do have more teeth than any other mammal – 50 to be exact– and they’re not afraid to show them when scared. But really, they’re just big scaredy cats. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “playin’ possum.” When opossums think their life is in danger, their bodies automatically go into a catatonic state. They’re respiration and heart rate decreases and they usually roll on their side, and look…well, dead. Most carnivores don’t like eating dead things, so this is a great tactic against predators. This means, they’re less likely to fight you (or your dog), and more likely to roll over and play dead.

Did you know that opossums also eat LOTS of ticks. We’re talking an estimated 4,000-5,000 ticks a week! I’m not sure about you, but I would prefer an opossum over a bunch of ticks any day!

Now you know why we think possums are so cool. But, what do you think? If you are also a fan of opossums, we hope you’ll join us in showing “OLIVE” your Love for Valentine’s day! Our goal is to raise $500 to help pay for her food, enrichment items, and future medical costs. Do you think you can help us today? Olive sure hopes so!

Links:

• PWC's Ambassadors