Possums are marsupials. When they’re born, they’re no bigger than a jellybean, living in their mothers’ pouch for up to 70 days, according to Connor Gillespie, a spokesman for the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
“They’re not ready to go out yet, so they’ll cling to mom’s back and ride around on her for a while until they do go off on their own.”
There can be more than a dozen little guys learning to forage as they ride along, but one apparently fell off and was washed or crawled away.
“A city of Waynesboro worker was doing some routine inspections of the sewer, and they use some kind of camera crawling device, and they were really surprised to find a little possum stuck there in the sewer.”
The baby was soaking wet and shivering when delivered to the center, placed in an incubator and nursed back to health. This week – Gillespie says – he returned to the wild.
“We just hope that this time he stays away from sewers.”
He adds that while possums hiss and show their sharp little teeth when they feel threatened, they pose no risk to humans and are nomadic. Left alone, they will eventually move on in search of tasty insects, rodents and roadkill, birds, eggs, frogs, plants, fruit and grain.
