Wrong identification

We often get called out to pick up a certain type of animal and it turns out to be something different. Someone might ring and say they have an injured ringtail or glider and it turns out to be a brushtail. They often confuse peewees with magpies. I even know of one case where carers were called out to pick up a king brown snake that turned out to be a tiny legless lizard.

So, when I recently came across the picture below I thought it was quite funny, something I, and I'm sure a lot of other carers, could relate to.



However, in the course of looking for the picture again to use it in this blog, I found the following picture.



Seems like this one might circulate for a while in a few different guises. There's more about it here. Apparently the Australian one was not the original.

Incidentally, if that possum in the first picture had truly just been found and was not friendly, there's no way I'd be holding it like that. One hand round the neck and shoulders and the other on the base of the tail so they're facing away from you is the safest way.