Into this world (4) : Baby Possom Ay-Jay
Into this world (4) : Baby Possom Ay-Jay
Last Thursday, we were out to town shopping and visiting friends. We came home to find a baby possom sleeping in one of our flower pots. It looks about 4-5 months old - old enough to stay outside its mother pouch. Did you you know that Australian brushtail possoms are born really tiny - like baby Pandas - and live in the mother’s pouch on the tummy just below the waist? Baby possoms are bald when born and start to grow short hair after about 5 months old. By now they start to explore the world outside the pouch, they cling to the mother’s breast or back when she goes out hunting at night. Possoms are nocturnal. They sleep during the day in hollows, under awnings and roofs in houses.
We have raised a baby possom to maturity before. (See Meego in
Into this world http://www.gotoknow.org/posts/558887
Into this world (2): getting ready to explore http://www.gotoknow.org/posts/561267
Into This World (3): Possom goes noodles - https://www.gotoknow.org/posts/562207
Meego has been released into the wild - to enjoy her some 20 years of life as a freerange possom ;-).
<p “=”“>The words must be out in the wild world that we are ‘possom carers’ and difficult baby possoms can be left in our care. We don’t know the reason nor the circumstance that AJ (short for Another Joey; reads ay-jay or eh-jeh but not eye-jai) came to be left in a flower pot. We took it in anyway. [Oh, did you know a baby possom is called a joey (joe-ee) like a baby kangaroo. </p>
This is AJ - the baby possom who will be under our care for the next few months. We are hopefull that we will be successful in raising another possom into this world - again. Follow our progress on Gotoknow eh?
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แม่ออกไปหาอาหารมาเลี้ยงลูกเหรอค่ะ พอโตแล้วหน้าตาเหมือนกระรอกตัวอ้วนๆ นะคะ
Thabk you จันทวรรณ : We found AJ around 3PM. Possoms are nocturnal. THey hunt at night and sleep during day. When mother possoms go hunting they take their baby with them - in the pouch if the baby (usually just one baby) is small under 6 months old and on their back or on their chest (the baby possom has to hold on tight) until the babay has really furry hair (about 11-13 months old depending the weather too). Then the mother would wean or bite off the baby. A clear signal for the baby possom to leave (get off the mother's back litterally).
So, it is not a usual circumstance for AJ to be where he was found. We have grave fear for the mother possom's safety.