Paw-Paw came in as a result of his Mum being
found dead under a Paw-Paw tree, she was in a sorry state before
dying, very thin and debilitated. How this came to happen is anyone's
guess, unfortunately we can only guess in these situations.
However her little joey was
found in the pouch by Mark the landowner, and he called immediately
after realising the joey was there, and by all accounts unharmed.
We named the little fellow Paw-Paw. His weight was just 54 gram
on arrival, short fine velvet fur covering his body, but not yet
enough to keep him warm, so he was placed on warmth and in a substitute
pouch, he is now fed every 4 hours around the clock till he gets
a bit bigger.
It is very unusual for Ringtail
possums only to have one young, they would normally have 2 or even
3, but there were no sign of mum Ringtail having had another joey,
her teats told the story of only one young suckling.
He is seen here 2 days after
arrival.
Paw Paw was released with a
another Ringtail of similar age after 8 months in care.
All animals such as this is
soft released, which means they can come and go from the release
site, untill such time as they have built their new home in the
wild.
