It's That Time of Year...

 Spring is just around the corner and here at Volunteers for Wildlife we are excited as we prepare for the 2012 baby season.  We rehabilitate several types of baby animals at our clinic including Eastern Cotton Tail rabbits, Eastern Grey squirrels, Virginia Opossums, and various species of native song birds.  With lots of hard work and a little TLC we try our best to return all of these orphans to the wild so that one day they will be able to have offspring of their own! One of my personal favorite species to work with is the Virginia Opossum, which is the only native Marsupial in North America.  Female opossums can give birth to up to 26 baby opossums at once; however only 13 are able to fit inside the mother's pouch and survive.  When they are born, these tiny babies can be as small as a jelly bean!  Young opossums will continue to grow in the safety of their mother's pouch and when they get too big to all fit together in there they will venture out and catch a ride on mom's back! 

One of our resident opossums, Millie, was an orphaned baby at our hospital about two years ago.  Unfortunately, Millie's mom got hit by a car, but because all eight of her babies were snuggled safely in her pouch they were able to survive.  Millie and her siblings were kept warm and fed often so that they could grow big and strong and be released out into the wild when they were ready.  As time went on, the staff at VFW started to notice that in this group of young opossums there was always one that seemed to have more interest in the human staff than in her own siblings.  For some reason, this little opossum was friendly toward people and didn't have much fear of anyone taking care of her.  Due to Millie's docile nature, she became a permanent resident at our education center and she now works to teach people all over Long Island how great Opossums are!  Shown here are pictures of Millie with her siblings as a baby (top) and Millie taking a stroll in our animal garden at Bailey Arboretum (bottom).