Meet our newest education ambassador animals!

Amid the (mostly organized) chaos of baby season, our education ambassador animals are steady anchors for our staff and volunteers. ⚓️

We love getting to shower them with love and enrichment all year round. We’re excited to share that our ambassador “family” has grown this summer!

Meet our new education ambassadors. 🥹

Why have we covered our opossum’s adorable little noggin? 👀 He’s never been seen by the public before, and we wanted to save his big debut for our guests at Mountain View Magic! There just might be a chance for someone to name him that evening. (In full transparency, this cutie won’t be attending the Soirée as that’s a bit too overwhelming for such a new ambassador! But our guests will be the first to see his full, glorious face on our giant screens!)

Our adorable Painted Turtle, on the other hand, isn’t exactly a surprise. He has been on display at the Sanctuary for the past nine months, so many folks who have brought patients to us or visited for a guided tour have already met this cutie. But he needs a name too, and you can bid on his naming rights in our online auction. (Consider this as us begging the winner out there to pick something good, since this handsome herptile will likely live another 30+ years! 😆)

This turtle officially joined the Sanctuary as a permanent education ambassador back in December 2025. Sadly, he has a similar backstory to many of our other ambassador team members: he was an illegal pet. 😔 The Virginia Conservation Police had intercepted this charming little turtle when his “owner” was attempting to sell him online. It is illegal to sell or purchase any native or naturalized turtle species in Virginia. In most cases, it’s illegal to take them from the wild in the first place!

Another reason why this turtle could not be released after confiscation was that he had been kept for too long in captivity. In Virginia, any turtle taken from the wild must be returned to its exact found location within 30 days, and only if it has had zero contact with any other amphibian. Otherwise, it automatically is permanently non-releasable. Releasing it later after extended contact with humans or other pets can introduce new diseases or parasites into a wild population, potentially causing fatal mass-mortality events.

That might sound dramatic, but it’s unfortunately a very real threat! One of the world’s panzootics (a pandemic among animals) is that of chytridiomycosis, caused by a fungus that scientists believe spread artificially around the globe due to commercial trade in the mid-1900s. It has caused the most significant loss of biodiversity from disease in recorded history, and the Western United States has an extremely high incidence of disease – yet, many people have never heard of it!

This just goes to show that conservation measures can only go so far without public awareness. Wildlife laws exist for a reason. They’re not a suggestion! The more people who understand the risks of illegally moving wildlife, the healthier our ecosystems will be.

Back to the turtle at hand. Our new reptilian ambassador initially stayed with our friends at the Wildlife Center of Virginia while awaiting the settlement of his former “owner’s” court case, since he was technically evidence. 🧑‍⚖️  WCV took wonderful care of him before we were able to welcome him to the Sanctuary as his forever home!

Though shy at first, he has come out of his shell admirably since the winter. 🤩 He’s often eager for hand-feeding time, and he’s recently been brave enough to bask on his dock during the day while we’re working nearby! We’re excited to continue to get to know our new friend and, through his story, help our community understand how important it is to let wild animals stay in the wild.

The Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) gets its name from the gorgeous red markings on its shell, as well as the splashes of yellow along its head. They are believed to be the most common basking turtles native to Virginia, so it’s likely you’ve seen one before! These peaceful critters typically enjoy shallow, slow-moving freshwater habitats where they can forage for insects, plants, fish, and even small mammals to their heart’s content. 🦟🌱🐟

One last thing to note as you’re getting to know our new ravishing reptilian ambassador…and perhaps considering bidding on his naming rights: we know for sure that he’s a male! Well, we’re almost certain. That’s because he has beautifully long nails that any manicurist would be jealous of. 💅 Male Painted Turtles have significantly longer foreclaws than females do, in addition to having generally smaller, flatter shells. Males use those long nails to woo a female, stroking her head and neck with his claws initially before using those nails to hold the female during mating. Romance ain’t dead! 🐢💚🐢

If you’re feeling inspired to bid on this handsome ambassador’s name, you can do so right now in our online auction! You’ll also win a beautiful framed portrait of him, taken by our friends and Mountain View Magic sponsors, Chime Studio.

Mr. Painted Turtle is not the only new face around here. While we were still mourning the loss of our beloved ambassador opossum, Barney, along came a young opossum needing his own forever home.

Meet Mr. Virginia Opossum!

This absolutely adorable young male has a peculiar story. He initially came into care with another licensed rehabber back in early April as just a wee little joey. Unfortunately, his mother had been attacked and killed by a dog – along with all of his siblings.  😞

From the start, he struck his caretaker as being a little, well, off. He would call out for his siblings constantly, yet seemed uninterested in socializing when paired with similarly-aged patients. He was a picky eater, too, which has never before been a characteristic we’ve ascribed to any opossum patient. 😆 He has moments when he freezes, but not in a “playing possum” defensive way, and he does take a little longer to climb – though he LOVES to climb.

Mr. Virginia Opossum is also visually quite unique. His coat is almost completely black, except for the white fur on his face! While Virginia Opossums show a wide geographic variation in coat color, opossums in their namesake state typically have a white undercoat with dark gray, white, and brown guard hairs. Our new ambassador’s coat looks like a silken midnight sky! 🌌

We were glad when the other rehabber contacted RWS about evaluating him as a potential ambassador. After about a month at the Sanctuary, with little progress in his ability to ‘wild up’ but a lot of progress in his interest in people, we decided he would be a wonderful fit for our education program!

Our veterinarian friends at the Wildlife Center of Virginia gave him a thorough medical exam to make sure he could live a healthy, happy life with us. Imaging revealed a mild case of Metabolic Bone Disease, which makes sense (unfortunately) given how long he had been eating a very limited diet with the other rehabber. Don’t worry, we’ve got him on a well-rounded diet now! 🥕🐭🍄‍🟫 The veterinary team also initially suspected that his odd behavior could be due to lead toxicity, but blood tests revealed only subclinical levels of lead, meaning it is not enough to cause noticeable symptoms. He was almost certainly exposed through his mother’s milk before she died.

With veterinary clearance, we now know that this handsome opossum really is just a little oddball! But that’s perfect for us – we love the oddballs here at RWS. 💕

We are so grateful for the opportunity to give this marvelous marsupial the home he deserves. As an education ambassador, he’ll inspire thousands of people each year to care more deeply and be more curious about our wild neighbors. And he’ll get to start doing that soon, once he has a name!

We hope you’ll join us next Friday at Mountain View Magic, where you’ll get to be the first to see this critter’s face…and who knows, you might just earn the right to name him! 😉 In the meantime, be sure to check out our jam-packed online auction!

Thanks to our generous sponsors, every cent from our event and auction will go directly to our mission to save native wild animals and give them the dignified lives they deserve.

Thank you for reading this month’s Critter Corner! 💚