Spotlight on Ellie O’Neill

Hotline Volunteer with a Love for Opossums

by Sandy Schriever

Ellie O’Neill started volunteering for the DFW Wildlife Coalition hotline in June 2005, right after she “graduated” with the North Texas Master Naturalist class of 2005 in May.  It was a natural fit for her as Ellie has always loved animals and began working part time over twenty years ago for the Heard Museum and later for the Plano Outdoor Learning Center.

I asked Ellie about how her involvement with opossums started, and her story is an interesting example of how a negative can turn into a positive.  In the mid-1970s, Ellie and her family bought a 3.5 acre homestead in Allen, built a horse stall facility, and raised chickens and pigs in one horse stall, and housed the horses in the other.  After her daughter discovered an opossum eating their chicken eggs, a neighbor volunteered to “take care” of it for her.  Later, when Ellie became involved with wildlife, she discovered she not only loved opossums, but realized the important role they play in nature and their right to co-exist with us.  In 1988, Ellie first learned how to care for opossums and has been learning more and more about them ever since.  (In addition to joining the National Opossum Society, she hopes to acquire a rehabilitation permit when time permits in the future.)

Her detailed knowledge of opossums has come in handy on her weekly hotline shift.  Just recently Ellie took a call from a McKinney schoolteacher who had an opossum enter his house through his kitty door.  After securing the small creature in a box lined with towels, the teacher called the hotline because he was not sure if the opossum was a baby or not, and did not know if he should release it.  Ellie asked him the key question: “What color are its ears?”  He told her that they were almost completely black with just a touch of pink at the ends.  Next, Ellie asked him how long the opossum was from the tip of its nose to the base of its tail.  (When measuring, it’s important to not include any of the tail to get an accurate assessment of the opossum’s age.)  Since the young animal was at least 7 inches long, Ellie knew that the opossum was releasable.  She concluded the call by telling the teacher what type of habitat in which to release the opossum, that is, primarily a place where there is plenty of water but away from busy streets and dogs.

Ellie also pointed out another interesting thing to me that we may want to pass along to our less squeamish callers who may come across injured or dead opossums.  It is possible that any babies that are inside a mother opossum who has been hit by a car can be rescued by a rehabilitator.  If found in time, a rehabber can find the pouch opening and rescue any babies inside. 

Recently, Ellie became a full-time pharmacy technician after acquiring her certification from Richland Community college but still has plenty of energy for volunteering.  In addition to the Coalition, she’d like to get involved in bird-banding at the Heard Museum next spring.  In the meantime, we certainly know where to go with our opossum questions.