Possum Pat

09/07/2026

A skunk's spray is one of the most feared defenses in nature, but almost nobody knows it's a limited resource. A skunk carries roughly enough chemical compound in its scent glands for about five to six uses before it's fully depleted, and it takes around ten days for its body to fully replenish the supply.

Because of that, a skunk doesn't spray as a first response. It runs through an entire warning sequence first: stomping its front feet, hissing, raising and puffing out its tail, sometimes even doing a shaky little charge, all before ever turning around to spray.

That warning sequence exists because using the spray is genuinely costly for the skunk itself, not just unpleasant for whatever's on the receiving end. An animal that empties its supply on a false alarm could be left defenseless against a real threat for over a week afterward.

If you ever see a skunk stomping and hissing in your yard, that's not aggression. That's a clear, deliberate warning from an animal that would much rather not spend a resource it can't easily replace.

Back away slowly and give it space — the stomping means you still have time to avoid the one thing it's trying hard not to use.

09/07/2026

Why is the groundhog so fat in September? Because it is packing for a trip it will not wake up from until February, and it has to carry every calorie on its body. The whole timetable, and what the burrow is doing under your shed, is in the comments.

A groundhog is one of the few animals in your yard that truly hibernates. Not the light sleep of a chipmunk or a bear, which wakes and stirs. The real thing. By late October it goes down a tunnel to a chamber dug below the frost line, backfills the passage behind it with dirt, curls up, and shuts down. Body temperature falls from ninety nine degrees to the high thirties. The heart goes from eighty beats a minute to four or five. Breathing drops to a couple of breaths a minute. It will lose a quarter of its weight or more lying there and never eat a bite.

So the animal flattening your late beans right now is not being greedy. It is building the fat it will burn in the dark. 🍂

09/06/2026

Twenty years without Steve Irwin, and the world is still learning from him.

He spent his life teaching millions of people to approach the natural world with curiosity instead of fear, and to care deeply about the creatures we share this planet with.

That legacy lives on through Bindi and Robert, who have continued his conservation work while also becoming proud allies to the LGBTQ+ community in their own right.

A pretty remarkable legacy of caring for animals, for the planet, and for each other.

09/02/2026

08/28/2026

Every year, we have to write another of the same post. Please do not paint turtles!
The shell of the turtle is its body. It does not leave the shell, the shell is not a house. It is actually their ribcage. The spine runs along the back. The shell contains nerves and is living tissue.
Painting a shell blocks the turtle from getting essential sunlight, it leeches chemicals into their body, it creates a seal that traps moisture and can rot the shell and create fungal infections. And it takes away their camouflage, making them a bright beacon for a hungry predator. You wouldn't want someone to paint your body, so why do it to someone else?
Meet our 71st intake of the season. This Eastern box turtle was found by a kind man in his carport. He said, "it's all covered in paint, and I know that's dangerous for them." Thankful that he called. We have a lot of work to do to remove something done so quickly.

08/25/2026

Let's chat about ChatGPT! In the past month, we've been getting more and more calls from people asking for wildlife advice who say, “Oh, but that's not what ChatGPT told me …”

While AI can be a good tool when used correctly, it is not a substitute for advice from trained wildlife professionals. Wildlife rescue and emergency situations are complex, and it can be difficult to distinguish between an animal needing help and one that should be left alone, or how best to help an animal in need. Relying on ChatGPT or other AI tools for answers can often cause more harm than good, as the information it references may be from inaccurate sources and lead to poor decisions.

If you need wildlife help, the best thing you can do is contact our Center or a permitted wildlife rehabilitator near you - that's why we're here! Our team is always happy to help navigate wildlife concerns and ensure injured and orphaned animals get the help they need.

08/25/2026

08/25/2026

I shared this last year from Secret Squirrel Wildlife Rehab & I feel it needs to be shared again:

This helps to put in perspective why so many individuals have to wait to hear back from licensed wildlife rehabilitators & facilities. Why we can not always come out to pick up every animal we are called about.

Please remember, rescues & rehabilitators are not paid & we are not funded at all. It could be 1 person taking in calls, medicating, cleaning, & feeding wildlife plus their regular paying job, their family, their pets...plus all the things in between like getting supplies, going to the vet, repairs on enclosures, & the list could go on.

From about March to September many rehabilitators may average 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night if lucky. We are yelled at by a handful of individuals that truly have no idea what we do. We see more death & suffering than any of us cares to share & more than many could deal with.

Yes there are some bad rehabilitators but most are truly wonderful & very caring individuals that put themselves dead last to care for wildlife & to help the people calling.

Please be kind & patient! 💜

08/24/2026

North America’s common box turtle (Terrapene carolina) is found throughout the eastern United States and much of Mexico. For people who do not know turtles very well, almost every North American turtle they see is likely to be erroneously labeled a “box turtle.”

The real box turtle is distinctive, with a high-domed carapace (upper shell), and a hinged plastron (lower shell) allowing the turtle to completely enclose itself within to evade predators. There are a total of seven recognized species of box turtles, with three recognized subspecies of the common box turtle.

North American box turtles are declining due to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, in addition to human activity. Many die attempting to cross roads. The species has been assessed as being vulnerable to extinction. As with many reptiles, and especially turtles, box turtles are long-lived, and slow to reproduce, making any population declines that much more dire.

These charismatic turtles are omnivores, and are known to eat a wide variety of animals and plants. Their home ranges are surprisingly small, varying roughly between 0.4 and 15 acres; for better context, the lower end of that range is smaller than a football field. All of this means that these turtles cannot be moved far without causing them harm. While it can be tempting to keep a box turtle found in a roadway as a pet, removing that turtle from the wild may be detrimental to the local population. It may also be illegal due to state protections.

If you see a box turtle in the road, and can safely help it cross, move it only in the direction it was headed across that road. It has a destination in mind. It is so important that more people understand the challenges our native reptiles are facing, and help conserve them.
__________
The photograph used in this post shows a young eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) observed in North Carolina. The photo was taken by iNaturalist user joshl, and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. The image was not altered for use in this post.
View license information here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/