Peanut the Lost Baby Possum
This morning I got a call about a baby possum that another staff member had found on one of the walkways around the resort. He had a good look around for the mum but couldn’t find her anywhere so brought the baby in to us. It was only a tiny little joey, still naked and its eyes were still closed.
At this young age the baby should be safely snuggled up in its mother’s pouch. We don’t know what happened to the mother, maybe she got startled by something or someone and dropped the baby? I named the little guy “Peanut” and the poor thing was crying and really cold when I got him. So I wrapped him in a nice soft blanket and held him close to my chest so he could warm up and also hear my heartbeat. As they are used to being in the pouch, close to the mother’s chest, hearing a heartbeat usually calms them down straight away. Same with little Peanut, he snuggled up into the blanket and went to sleep. Unfortunately little babies like that need very special care, including a special baby formula to feed them, so we can’t take care of them here on the island. We sent Peanut over to the mainland on the next boat where he was picked up by a trained carer who will be raising and taking care of him until he is big enough to be released.
So if you ever find a baby possum or other native animal without their mother, the best thing to do is to wrap them in a blanket to keep them warm, and call the RSPCA straight away so they can organise for a carer to look after it.
Eco Ranger Ina