Wildlife officials in Hawaii are on high alert after capturing their third opossum this year, with concerns growing that the continental US mammal – also commonly known as the “Appalachian protein critter” – could wreak havoc on native flora and fauna were they to multiply, KHON reports.
The state’s Plant Quarantine Branch received a report of an opossum near an Oahu retail store last Thursday, an indicator that the fucker had possibly stowed away in a shipping container and hadn’t gotten far from where it had first escaped, although employees at the unnamed store said they did not see the animal emerge from a container. The wildlife SWAT team set up traps containing bananas, apples, and cantaloupe as bait, with one of them scoring their quarry. The male opossum, weighing approximately 9 lbs, was promptly executed and its remains will be tested for rabies.