Two live opossums were captured Tuesday at Honolulu Harbor, and a third was captured in Hilo last month.
At 6:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, a shipping company reported seeing an opossum running around the Pier 1 container yard overnight, the state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity said in an Oct. 21 announcement.
According to DAB, agriculture inspectors from the department’s Plant Quarantine Branch responded within the hour and captured the critter “using a pole and net after it took shelter under a shipping container.”
“At 11:00 a.m., a different shipping company on the opposite end of the harbor reported that it had captured an opossum in a cat trap after observing the animal running around the container yard around Pier 51,” the announcement noted. “PQB inspectors were immediately dispatched and retrieved the animal.”
These captures come a little more than a month after an opossum was caught in a trap by Hilo Plant Quarantine inspectors at Hilo Harbor on Sept. 15.
“Three days before, an employee from a shipping company reported seeing an opossum running between vehicles on the dock,” the announcement reads. “Agricultural inspectors were dispatched and saw the opossum crawl into the undercarriage of a vehicle but were unable to physically reach the animal as it moved further into the engine. The vehicle was moved into a 40-foot container where traps with cat food and water were deployed.”
As is protocol, the three opossums were humanely euthanized to test for rabies, the department says. The opossum found in Hilo tested negative for the disease and tissue samples from the two opossums captured Tuesday will be sent to the Mainland for testing.
The state Department of Health notes that Hawai‘i is the only state in the country that is free of rabies, and that all cat and dogs entering the Islands must follow rabies quarantine requirements.
DAB says that a number of opossums have been captured in Hawai‘i over the past 20 years.
Among the most recent instances, an opossum was captured at a big box store in Kona in January, and three were caught in 2024: on the window ledge of a Downtown Honolulu office building, at a Kalihi freight company and at a big box store in Iwilei, according to the department.
DAB says the animals are native to North America and are omnivores with diets that range from insect, bird eggs and rodents to fruits and vegetables.
“Although opossums are less likely to carry rabies than other mammals, they are carriers of parasites and other diseases,” DAB says.
Other illegal animals have been captured in recent months.
In June, a live, three-and-a-half foot non-venomous ball python was captured by state agriculture inspectors in Kaimukī, and live skunk was captured by Honolulu police in Kaka‘ako.
Earlier this summer, we learned more about what happens when illegal animals and invasive stowaways are found in Hawai‘i. You can read more about that here.
Anyone who spots an illegal animal should call the statewide toll-free Pest Hotline at 808-643-PEST (7378).
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
