Possums are omnivores, and this one-year-old is happily chowing down on a mix of fruit and hard boiled eggs at the wildlife center in Waynesboro where he’s been living for the past three months.
"We admitted a new possum in October 2024, found when he was very young by someone who raised him as a pet, says Center spokesman Connor Gillespie. It’s illegal to keep a wild animal as a pet, so this guy was confiscated, but he couldn’t be freed.
"He was so habituated to humans that he couldn’t be released to the wild," Gillespie explains. "He just wouldn’t have the skills to survive."
He did show promise as an educational ambassador – an animal that could comfortably travel to schools, libraries and events.
"He is definitely the friendliest possum I’ve ever worked with, and he was very eager to participate in training and come out in front of people for programs. The only thing he still needs is a name."
So the Wildlife Center announced a naming contest that could double as a fundraiser with people paying a dollar each time they voted for one of three names.
"Powhatan is a tribute to the native peoples from which the Virginia possum’s name was derived. Cosmos is a nod to the night sky. You know they’re very nocturnal animals, so that’s very fitting for a possum, and the last one is Mars, which is short for marsupial, the kind of animals they belong to."
Gillespie admits he has a favorite.
"The cosmos flower has a close relation to the marigold flower, and our former possum ambassador, who passed away, her name was marigold, so I think if he was named Cosmos it would be a great way of carrying on her legacy at the Wildlife Center of teaching people about possums."
Whatever the animal is called, he’ll be tasked with improving the image of possums everywhere.
"When people first encounter a possum in the wild, often times the possum gets spooked and its first reaction is to open up its mouth really wide and show those teeth and maybe hiss," Gillespie explain.
But, he says, it’s just a show.
"They’re harmless!"
And they’re actually an important player in Virginia’s food chain, eating ticks and – themselves – becoming food for foxes, bobcats and other large mammals.
They’re also killed by cars.
"They have a really excellent sense of smell, and any time there’s something near the roadway that they smell, they’re going to wander right out to look for it," he notes. "They’re pretty nomadic too, so often times they have to cross the road to get from one part of their habitat to another."
They don’t always see a vehicle coming, and when they do the response is sometimes to freeze. It’s not a good tactic on the road, although it sometimes works in the wild.
"You can imagine if you are a predator and you’re going after a possum, and all of a sudden it seems to keel over dead, you might question whether that’s a meal you want to eat."
So far, the Wildlife Center has raised nearly $6,000 through online balloting – money to support the new ambassador and 5-600 possums brought in for treatment each year. Voting ends Wednesday night, and the preferred name will be announced on Thursday.
To weigh-in on this issue, go to https://wildlifecenter.org/opossum-name