An Australian wildlife rescue team received a call about a possum believed to be dead after it became wedged between two fence posts. But when a rescuer arrived at the scene, the animal was found to be alive.
A rescuer from Hamilton Wildlife Shelter in Hamilton, Australia, discovered the ringtail possum on Sunday, September 13, after being “called to a deceased Ringtail Possum that had been caught between two gate poles”, the shelter said in a Facebook post.
The rescuer said they initially went to the location to check the animal and remove what they believed was its body.
“I don’t normally go out to dead possums, but as it was high and the member of the public couldn’t check it, I decided I would head there and do a pouch check and remove the body,” the rescuer wrote.
After almost missing the possum, the rescuer took photographs for instructional purposes before attempting to free the animal.
Images shared by the shelter showed the fuzzy, grey marsupial hanging limp in an upside-down “U” shape while tightly lodged between two metal posts.
The shelter later clarified that the possum had not been deliberately placed there or “crushed” or “compressed”. The animal had become stuck after slipping between the posts.
While attempting to remove it, the rescuer noticed that the possum was “still limp, not stiff” and that its belly area was still warm. This led the rescuer to believe it had died only a few hours earlier.
Then, the possum’s arm moved, and its eyes opened.
“This possum was NOT DEAD!!!” Hamilton Wildlife Shelter wrote on Facebook. “Just unconscious, ice cold and deathly still.”
Despite the animal’s height and the fence’s barbs, which made the rescue difficult, the rescuer eventually managed to free it from the narrow gap.
“Nothing was crushing any organs or limbs. Where he was stuck is the thinnest part of a possum, and I was able to lift him out once I got him past the barbed wire barbs,” the rescuer explained in a subsequent post.
