Most people who rescue an injured or orphaned wild animal and get it to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator never find out what happens next. You drop off the animal, the staff takes it from you, and that’s the last you see of it. For a lot of rescuers that uncertainty lingers — did the animal make it? What kind of care did it receive? Will it actually be released back into the wild, or does “wildlife rehabilitation” mean something more complicated than that?
This post pulls back the curtain on what actually happens to orphaned and injured wildlife once they arrive at a licensed rehabilitator in California, using the journey of a baby opossum named Fern — rescued by a Los Angeles resident and transported to Pasadena Humane Society’s wildlife rehabilitation program — as a real example of the process from intake to release.
What Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitation Actually Means
Licensed wildlife rehabilitation is a highly regulated field in California. Rehabilitators must hold both state permits issued by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and in many cases federal permits as well, particularly for migratory birds which fall under federal jurisdiction. These permits require demonstrated knowledge of wildlife care, appropriate facilities, and ongoing compliance with state and federal standards.
This regulatory framework exists because wildlife rehabilitation is genuinely specialized medicine and animal husbandry that requires species-specific knowledge most people — including most veterinarians without specific wildlife training — simply don’t have. The diet, housing, handling protocols, medical treatment, and behavioral conditioning appropriate for a baby opossum are completely different from those appropriate for a red-tailed hawk, a cottontail rabbit, or a western scrub jay, and incorrect care in any of these areas can cause serious harm or death even in an animal that arrived with no physical injuries.
When an animal arrives at a licensed facility like Pasadena Humane Society’s wildlife rehabilitation program, it enters a structured intake and care process designed specifically around the needs of that species with the ultimate goal of releasing a healthy, wild-behaving animal back into an appropriate habitat.
The Intake Process
When Fern arrived at Pasadena Humane Society, the first step was a thorough intake assessment by trained wildlife staff. This assessment covers the animal’s physical condition — weight, hydration status, any injuries or abnormalities — as well as the circumstances of the rescue, including where the animal was found, how long it had been in the rescuer’s care, and whether it had been offered any food or water before arrival.
This intake information matters because it directly affects the immediate treatment plan. An animal that has been incorrectly fed before arrival may need different initial care than one that arrived having received nothing. An animal that was found several days before being brought in presents differently than one found and transported the same day.
Following the physical assessment, the animal receives any immediate medical attention needed — fluids for dehydration, treatment for visible injuries, warming if hypothermic — and is placed in appropriate housing for its species and developmental stage.
Species-Specific Housing and Diet
One of the most important and least understood aspects of wildlife rehabilitation is how dramatically care requirements differ between species. The housing, diet, temperature requirements, social needs, and handling protocols appropriate for a baby opossum are entirely different from those for a baby bird or a young rabbit, and getting these details wrong has serious consequences.
Baby opossums like Fern require housing that maintains appropriate warmth since young opossums cannot regulate their own body temperature effectively. They are fed a species-specific formula on a carefully timed schedule that mimics the nutritional profile and feeding frequency they would receive from their mother. This formula is very different from anything available over the counter, which is why well-meaning home feeding attempts so often result in metabolic bone disease — a painful and debilitating condition caused by incorrect calcium and phosphorus ratios in the diet that leads to bone deformities and in severe cases paralysis.
As orphaned opossums grow, their diet transitions through stages that mirror their natural developmental progression, moving from formula to soft foods to a diet that increasingly resembles what they would eat in the wild — insects, fruits, vegetables, and other items appropriate for an omnivorous marsupial preparing for independent life.
The Goal of Minimal Imprinting
One of the central principles of wildlife rehabilitation that surprises many people is the deliberate effort rehabilitators make to minimize the bond between the animal and the humans caring for it. This seems counterintuitive — don’t animals in care need to feel safe and comfortable with their caregivers?
The answer is nuanced. An animal needs to feel safe enough to eat, rest, and recover. But an animal that becomes genuinely comfortable with human presence, that loses its instinctive wariness of people, becomes a rehabilitation failure even if it’s physically healthy. A wild animal released into the wild without appropriate fear of humans is at serious risk — it may approach people, lose the avoidance behaviors that protect it from predators and human activity, and in many cases end up back in captivity or dead within a short time of release.
For this reason, licensed rehabilitators use techniques specifically designed to minimize imprinting and maintain the animal’s wildness throughout the care process. This includes limiting direct handling to necessary medical and feeding interactions, using housing that limits the animal’s view of and exposure to humans, and in some cases using puppets or costumes for species where visual imprinting on human faces is a particular concern.
Socialization With Other Animals of the Same Species
For social species, contact with other animals of the same kind is an important part of rehabilitation. Baby opossums that arrive at a rehabilitator are often housed with other opossums of similar age and developmental stage, which serves multiple purposes.
Contact with conspecifics — animals of the same species — helps young animals develop normal social behaviors, reduces stress through the comfort of appropriate company, and helps maintain the species-appropriate behavioral patterns that will serve the animal in the wild. An opossum that grows up in isolation from other opossums may lack behavioral cues and responses that are important for survival and that would normally be learned through interaction with siblings and the mother during the natural rearing process.
Preparing for Release
As an orphaned animal like Fern grows and develops, the rehabilitation process shifts increasingly toward preparation for life in the wild. This phase involves progressively larger and more complex housing that allows the animal to practice natural behaviors — foraging, climbing, exploring, and in the case of opossums, the wide-ranging nocturnal activity that characterizes the species in the wild.
Diet transitions to increasingly wild-appropriate foods, handling is reduced to the minimum necessary, and the animal’s overall wildness and wariness of humans is monitored as a key indicator of release readiness. A young opossum that shows appropriate caution around humans, forages actively, and demonstrates the nocturnal activity patterns normal for the species is progressing well toward release.
Release timing depends on the species, the individual animal’s development, and seasonal considerations. Opossums in California are typically ready for release when they reach a certain weight and demonstrate the behavioral indicators of independence, at which point they are released in an appropriate habitat — ideally near where they were originally found, since local wildlife is adapted to local conditions.
What Happens to Animals That Can’t Be Released
Not every animal that arrives at a wildlife rehabilitator is able to be successfully released. Some arrive with injuries too severe to recover from fully, some develop health complications during care, and some become too habituated to human presence during a prolonged care period to be safely returned to the wild.
For animals that cannot be released, outcomes vary by facility and by the animal’s specific situation. Some become educational ambassadors — animals used in wildlife education programs that help the public learn about native California species. Some are transferred to accredited sanctuaries or zoological facilities. In cases where quality of life cannot be maintained and release is impossible, humane euthanasia may be the most appropriate outcome, as difficult as that is for rescuers who found and cared for the animal to hear.
The goal of every licensed rehabilitator is always release, and the vast majority of animals that arrive in good enough condition to survive the intake process and receive appropriate care do eventually return to the wild.
Why the Rescuer’s Role Matters
The outcome for an animal like Fern depends heavily on decisions made in the hours between discovery and arrival at a licensed facility. An animal that arrives quickly, having been kept warm and quiet in an appropriate container without incorrect feeding or excessive handling, arrives in significantly better condition than one that spent days in a home environment receiving well-meaning but counterproductive care.
This is why the transport phase — getting the animal to a rehabilitator as quickly as possible, in the right container, without unnecessary stress — is genuinely one of the most important contributions a rescuer can make to the animal’s survival.
If you find an injured or orphaned wild animal in the Los Angeles area and need help getting it to Pasadena Humane Society or another licensed wildlife rehabilitator quickly, Pets Go Taxi can help. We recently transported Fern from Huntington Park to Pasadena Humane Society and understand that wildlife situations are time-sensitive. Text Brian directly or fill out the contact form to arrange transport in the Los Angeles area including Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, and surrounding communities.
A Final Note on Fern
Fern arrived at Pasadena Humane Society in the care of licensed rehabilitators who were already expecting her and prepared to provide exactly the species-specific care a baby opossum needs. She’ll spend the coming weeks and months receiving appropriate nutrition, growing alongside other young opossums, gradually developing the independence and wildness that will make her release possible.
With the right care, Fern will eventually return to the California landscape her species has inhabited since long before humans arrived — opossums have been present in North America since the time of the dinosaurs, making them one of the oldest surviving mammal lineages on the continent. That’s not a bad outcome for a small marsupial who started her second chance at life in a cardboard box in Huntington Park.