my name is John with mid-atlantic
wildlife control we're here today what
if a animal we get a lot of calls for
this is the opossum it's a very
interesting animal see only marsupial we
have in the United States this is a
remarkably robust animal has a very
strong immune system it's actually shown
partial or total immunity to the venom
of rattlesnakes and other pit vipers
just to let you know that this animal
has take times less likely the chance to
carry rabies the wild dogs also only one
and eight hundred opossums that are
tested test positive for the rabies
virus opossums are bound divorce meaning
they eat both plant and animal tissue
these guys are a lot of calls we get for
them are for raiding trash cans and also
for dining underneath the homes the
babies are called Joey's they're
typically born between January and July
and the female can have between 6 to 25
per litter normally only up to 13 will
survive because the female only has 13
teats
so that is typically what we see with
the females and the normal-sized litter
we actually see is between 6 to 9 in
this area of the country uh the babies
once again they're called Joey's and
they generally stay with mom or Wayne 70
to 125 days before exiting Mom's pouch
and starting to travel with her one of
the things you'll really notice about
this animal is we get a lot of calls for
them a lot of people mistake them with
other animals like raccoons and so forth
so we really want to give you a chance
to look at the colors here one thing I
did want to tell you was not to ever
handle opossums like this reason I'm
handling this one is because this guy's
been raised at a Wildlife Sanctuary and
he is very very tame so we did want to
give you a chance to kind of give you an
up-close view you'll notice the
coloration on the white and gray the
heroines tail and these animals
typically when we do get calls for them
they are primarily for being a people
trash cans and if you have any questions
whatsoever please feel free to give us a
call at any of our branch locations I in
DC you can reach us at 202 five five
seven one four four three or anywhere in
Maryland at four four three four one
seven three one three seven you can also
reach us on the web at wildlife catcher
at gmail.com thank you very much we look
forward to speaking with you