Heidi the Cross-eyed Possum. I hope Leipzig Zoo have insured those eyes. She is worth nothing if they uncross.
Heidi was abandoned outside an animal shelter in the US state of North Carolina. She is due to go on public display at Germanys famous Leipzig Zoo on July 1 2011.
In a skillful marketing ploy, anticipation of Heidi’s public display has been fuelled by a facebook fanpage that has been picked up by mainstream internet media.
The zoo says the marsupial’s eye problem may be to do with her diet before she was abandoned, or because she is overweight, leading to fat deposits behind her eyes. But she is healthy and not in pain, despite her bizarre appearance, the zoo says.
Regardless of how her eyes got that way, her goofy looks are a winner guaranteed to boost gate takings.
Leipzig Zoo is hoping that it is onto a winner following the mega success of Berlin Zoo’s Knut the baby Polar Bear in 2007.
Nerwswarped thinks that Heidi is lucky to have ended up in Germany. If she was abandoned in New Zealand she would have been put on a strick diet of 10/80 poison.
New Zealand has almost as many possums as sheep with an estimated 30 million furry marsupials chomping their way through it’s native forests and killing endangered birds.
Heidi’s story is so much better in German. Enjoy.
