Tails from the Field - April 2023

One of the most common wild animals that Mission Viejo Animal Services Officers interact with are opossums. These creatures are often thought of as pests, but they are actually interesting animals. Their main food source is ticks, which carry many dangerous zoonotic diseases. In North America, opossums are the only known marsupial, a small class of animals who raise their young in a pouch.

Because of the latter, when calls come in for deceased opossums, our officers are trained to check the animal's pouch for babies. That is what happened recently when Officer Stewart was dispatched to a local home where an opossum was found deceased in the backyard. Curled up next to a planter, the opossum had unfortunately succumbed to the elements from our recent bout of bad weather. Upon inspection, Stewart found seven babies in the mother's pouch, which kept the babies warm and protected even after the mother died. Immediately, our team gathered to make sure the babies were fed, and they were all transported to the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center where they will be raised and eventually released back into the wild.