SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Opossum

Opossums are North America's only marsupial so unlike other mammals, they don't have their babies in a den or nest. They carry them around in their pouch. Opossums have 13 nipples in their pouch so they can carry as many as 13 babies, though we usually see mothers with 9 to 11 in this area. Those babies will not be weaned until they are about 2 1/2 months old, then the mothers will still carry all those babies around on her back for another month or two before they go off on their own. Then she will immediately get pregnant again and repeat the cycle so she can squeeze in two litters every summer.
Opossums are very good mothers, and very prolific.