HONOLULU (KHON2) — A third opossum has been captured in Honolulu this year, according to the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture (HDOA).
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The animal was trapped overnight by plant quarantine inspectors at a big-box store in Iwilei.
The Plant Quarantine Branch received a report of the opossum on Dec. 12, when a passerby noted seeing the animal in the area the previous night. Inspectors set up traps and returned to the site on Dec. 15, where they found opossum droppings in a storage container.
They set additional traps using bananas, apples, and cantaloupe as bait. The following morning, the opossum was found in one of the traps.
Opossum captured in downtown Honolulu
It remains unclear where the opossum originated. Store employees said they did not see the animal emerge from any shipping container, although it was observed roaming the area at night. The storage container where the animal was trapped had not been used for shipping.