A trail walk along South Fork Trail in Lincolnton, North Carolina, turned into a rescue mission this week after a visitor spotted an opossum dangling from a tree branch more than 10 feet above the water — snagged on a fishing hook it couldn't shake loose.
The visitor couldn't safely reach the animal, so they sent a photo to the Carolina Wildlife Conservation Center, which took the call at 11:33 a.m. Wednesday. A rescue team arrived about an hour later, but the center's standard rescue pole couldn't extend far enough to reach the stranded opossum. So Rachel, the center's lead wildlife rehabilitator and hospital manager, climbed the tree herself and carried the animal down by hand, according to UPI.
At the center's wildlife hospital, an exam and X-rays found the hook embedded in soft tissue beneath the opossum's tongue, with fishing line still trailing from it. The animal was also dehydrated and emaciated, a sign it had likely been stuck in the tree for more than 24 hours before it was spotted.
Center staff used the rescue to renew a familiar warning: discarded fishing line, hooks and other tackle left along waterways pose a serious, often invisible hazard to wildlife, from opossums and raccoons to herons and turtles. The same stretch of North Carolina trails has produced similar calls before, including birds tangled in forgotten line.
The opossum is now recovering at the center's hospital while the hook wound heals. Carolina Wildlife Conservation Center asks anyone who spots an animal in distress to call or text its helpline, staffed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., rather than attempt a rescue themselves — a lesson this particular opossum, dangling well out of reach, illustrated better than most.