🕯️ LEGENDS GARDEN
👀 Heidi
Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) · The nocturnal house at Leipzig Zoo, Saxony, Germany
Lives in Legends Garden
Heidi arrived at Leipzig Zoo from Denmark in late 2010 and was filmed for a local German television report about the zoo's new nocturnal enclosure. Her eyes both pointed inward - vets put the squint down to a weight problem - and the clip went round Germany and then the world in December 2010. She collected more than 332,000 Facebook fans, a plush toy line and a YouTube song, was reported to be better known than Angela Merkel, and was flown into the American Oscars conversation on a US television show where she correctly picked the winners of best actor and best actress in 2011. She was put to sleep on 28 September 2011, aged three and a half, and the zoo laid out condolence books.
What they do
Waddles two steps forward, stops, and swivels her head slowly from side to side while both crossed eyes stay locked inward on her own pink nose.
Looks permanently, magnificently baffled by a world she is nonetheless walking straight into
Lore
- ★A single local TV report about Leipzig Zoo's nocturnal house in December 2010 made her an international celebrity
- ★She had over 332,000 Facebook fans and was widely said to be more popular in Germany than the Chancellor
- ★On a US television programme around the 2011 Oscars she correctly picked the winners for best actor and best actress
- ★Vets attributed her crossed eyes to being overweight rather than to any injury
Helping the real one
💛 Support Heidi via Zoo Leipzig - Foerdern & HelfenLeipzig Zoo, where Heidi lived and died, runs its support page with one-off donations, animal sponsorships, a species-protection donation and a supporters' association founded in 1992. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
- TODAY Famed cross-eyed opossum dies ↗
- Global News / Associated Press Heidi, Germany's celebrity cross-eyed opossum, dies at 3 1/2 ↗
Every link here was checked twice before it was published. If one is dead or wrong, tell us.