Meet Avocado, LA Wildlife's Newest, Cutest Ambassador

The Natural History Museum rescue is cute, furry, and represents urban critters.

Lovely people of the hills and canyons? What we're about to say won't concern you.

Oh, you are most welcome to read it, but you'll see what we mean. We want to talk about wildlife Angelenos who live in the flats and valleys. It's one thing to see raccoons and coyotes if you live deep in a canyon, but even denizens of our region's more dense urban areas have opossum encounters, or come across beasties one would not expect to find scurrying around the city.

Enter Avocado, and the animals of the Natural History Museum's new Nature Lab program. Avocado is a local opossum taken in by the Exposition Park institution. The museum is calling Avocado, who lost sight in one eye following an encounter with a dog, an ambassador for Los Angeles wildlife.

There are animals who call the Nature Lab home, which will makes its official debut on Sunday, June 9. Think crayfish and harvester ants and baby newts.

The furry Avocado, though, is a particularly cute reminder that even though we live in a steel-and-asphalt megalopolis, we share our home with a host of beasties, and they don't necessarily just stick to the canyons and trees. (Okay, baby newts and crayfish and ants: You all have your cute and/or fascinating qualities, too. Those cannot be denied.)

The Nature Lab debuts alongside the new Nature Gardens at the 100-year-old institution, which is throwing quite the mega party for its centennial. Somebody get Avocado a tiny party hat, stat!

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