Possum attack

[scyllarus]

Welp...I don't really need advice for this, just sharing my stupidity and getting things off my chest.

We left the cage door open overnight. Not a single bird tried to escape, but a little juvenile opossum clambered in at 5:30AM and caught one of the birds. Luckily it wasn't a favorite bird - it was one of our juveniles that I was still monitoring for signs of being a male/ deciding if I would keep as a more permanent covey member. We have cameras set up in the cage (I like to watch the birds) so we got lucky - I woke up early and was watching the birds when I caught the possum on film and called for the Husband. We caught the possum and we'll be releasing him at a local nature trail.

Things we've learned:
The birds apparently love their cage and have no interest in leaving.
We definitely have opportunistic predators nearby. Our cage is elevated about 3 feet off the ground on narrow metal legs, yet this little guy was able to notice the door was open and climb in.
Possums eat super fast. Warning to stop reading here if you're squeamish! The possum had started eating the bird from the thigh/belly and had eaten about half of the entire bird after maybe 3-5 minutes. We had to finish putting the poor bird down when we noticed it wasn't fully dead. It's just more evidence to me that, if you care for an animal, you shouldn't release it into the wild. Nature is brutal and cruel.

Link to the camera footage of the possum getting in. No violence or gore involved, he caught the bird off screen. We come out and catch the possum a few minutes after the video ends.

 

[Nabiki]

The quail aren't likely to wander out much at night. If it was open during the day, they would certainly wander out, though.

I'm glad you caught the possum before it ate any more of your birds. Seeing how the other quail don't react a lot also shows how little survival instinct they have.

 

[RadEggs]

Im so sorry. Don't beat yourself up about it, we all make mistakes, and you saved the rest of them.

 

[scyllarus]

The quail aren't likely to wander out much at night. If it was open during the day, they would certainly wander out, though.

I'm glad you caught the possum before it ate any more of your birds. Seeing how the other quail don't react a lot also shows how little survival instinct they have.

Yep. The Husband mentioned how they just kinda went about their business despite the whole "possum wandering around their home" situation. I pointed out that "predator awareness" and "being afraid of giant hairless primates" is the same thing, and we prefer birds who don't panic and run at the sight of us.

Im so sorry. Don't beat yourself up about it, we all make mistakes, and you saved the rest of them.

Thank you, but I'm okay. I'm really just glad we didn't need to fix the cage and that we only lost one bird. I figured it might be worth posting for others in case this helps someone in the future.