10 Reasons to Love Opossums

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Sun Oct 19, 2014, 07:03 PM - Edit history (1)

UPDATE also see this post from today: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025688043


http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-reasons-to-love-opossums.html




Kara, selected from Animal Planet October 14, 2014 2:00 pm

Opossums are one of the most common mammals in our cities and towns. They are really cool and interesting animals, but most people find them gross and scary-looking. I’m here to throw a little love to these misunderstood creatures with my top ten reasons to love opossums.

10. Opossums are North America’s Only Marsupial.
Opossums are not rats or even closely related to rodents. They are marsupials. Most marsupial species live in Australia and like kangaroos or koalas, opossums have a very short pregnancy–just 12 days–and give birth to their young even before eyes or hind limbs have fully formed. With only front legs, the tiny babies must crawl into their mother’s pouch, where they’ll attach to a nipple and nurse while they continue developing.

9. Baby Opossums are Fluffy and Cute.
When born, baby opossums are hairless and only the size of a bumble bee. But by the time they’re ready to leave mom’s pouch after about 11 weeks, baby opossums have turned into adorable little balls of flull.

8. Baby Opossums Ride on Mom’s Back.
Baby opossums get around by riding on their mothers’ backs. Few things are cuter than seeing a dozen or so babies just hanging out on mom’s back.



FULL story at link.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-reasons-to-love-opossums.html#ixzz3GVxW6Aeu

[Downwinder]

1. And they can eat cane toads.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/american-possums-the-solution-to-cane-toads-in/3114460

[Hekate]

28. Oh, jeez. Just. What. Hawaii. Needs. Possums.

That's what we'd call a local joke, back in the day. Mongooses were imported to control rats, but that didn't work out so well as one was nocturnal and one was diurnal. I forget how cane toads got there, but they are a major nuisance. The roadsides were littered with dried bufos. We couldn't walk through our own backyard are at night in the dark without running the bufo-toad gauntlet. Don't let your dog eat one -- they're poisonous.

I think the days of deliberate imports are gone, though.

[Ino]

2. Their normal lifespan is only about 3 years

I was surprised to learn that. Unfortunately, they all seem to come to my yard to die.

I like opossums. Found a little one trucking down the sidewalk during a rainstorm in the middle of the day. Something was wrong with its eye. He sat on my desk grooming himself, just as friendly as could be. I took him to wildlife rescue.

[Feral Child]

3. Good job, Ino

My kinda guy.

[Feral Child]

4. Fascinating creatures!

They love peanuts.

[TwilightGardener]

5. I love possums--used to have some visit my backyard in Nebraska.

[840high]

67. I have one loyal

one who visits - likes the dry cat food I leave for him/her.

[Prophet 451]

6. They're cutie pies! n/t

[JaneyVee]

7. I find them terrifying.

I'll never forget my first encounter with one. I ran out of an alleyway screaming at night when I was 14 and my friends thought I was being murdered. They asked what happened and I could only mutter "its eyes were glowing red and it had a pig snout, it was a devil beast!". Now that I'm 32 I can tolerate them a bit more but they still creep me out.

[valerief]

13. They're not aggressive (unless you try to handle them) and don't carry disease thanks

to their low body temp. Plus, they never hang around a place too long and eat any dead shit there before they leave. What's to hate?

One slammed up hard against my house one night. Guess it was going after a mouse or snake or some other animal. Scared the crap out of me. I went outside with an LED flashlight and saw its eyes a few feet away. It didn't lunge, didn't move. I just went inside, happy it was an opossum and not some lunatic human.

[kestrel91316]

18. Not so fast with that silly and dangerous myth.

Opossums carry typhus in some areas. They definitely do here in Los Angeles, where they are part of the suburban life cycle along with cats. http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/docs/bullmurinetyph.pdf

Here's some peer-reviewed research in case you think LA Co Public Health doesn't know what they are talking about:

S. G. Williams, J. B. Sacci Jr., M. E. Schriefer et al., “Typhus and typhuslike rickettsiae associated with opossums and their fleas in Los Angeles County, California,” Journal of Clinical Microbiology, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 1758–1762, 1992.

F. J. Sorvillo, B. Gondo, R. Emmons et al., “A suburban focus of endemic typhus in Los Angeles County: association with seropositive domestic cats and opossums,” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 269–273, 1993.

Opossums can and have also been found with rabies here in SoCal also. There is nothing to prevent this from happening elsewhere.

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/13/local/me-49343

http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/site/DocServer/CA_Rabies_Control_Report.pdf?docID=1121 See chart on page nine for opossum rabies totals in CA 1991-2000

[secondwind]

31. they can also carry leptospirosis... we have lost four dogs here in St. John's County so far. We

went ahead and decided to inoculate our pup against this disease... Glad we did

[Bette Noir]

34. Leptospirosis, carried by possums, killed 40% of the sea otters in Morro Bay

about 6 years back, all at once. That's a hard blow to absorb, by an animal that's endangered to start with.

[kestrel91316]

51. Huh? I thought that was all due to toxoplasmosis from feral cat feces in the watershed.

[Scootaloo]

45. My experience is that they're pretty chill about being handled, too

They're completely unafraid of everything, since in their little peanut brain they figure they can flop over and be 'dead' and save themselves from everything. This produces problems when you have a cat that's hungry but refuses to come inside to eat. You can't really poke the possum away 'cause it'll just hunker down there and wonder what the poking sensation is... so.. I'd had to physically remove them from the porch before.

Also had a baby one for a "pet" for a while. it ate all of the bananas and canned cat food we had, then trundled off into the woods to go be chill.

Fun fact: "Trundled" is the only word that can accurately describe opossum movement.

[MineralMan]

8. They're pretty inoffensive, overall.

If you approach a wild one, it will probably open its mouth, show its very many teeth and hiss loudly at you. Be not afraid. Just stand your ground. It won't attack you. Instead, it will figure out that the hissing didn't get the job done and stop doing that. It will then turn around and start walking away from you. If you follow, it may try the hissing trick again, but it may not. In any case, you can follow the critter from a few feet away and see what it does.

If you have them in your yard as regular visitors, they enjoy cheap dry cat food very much. They also like peanuts in the shell. Don't give them the salted ones, though. Either raw or roasted without salt. They'll tend to show up at the same time each day, usually in the evening. You can get a chair and sit near their food. They'll come anyhow, and you'll get to watch them.

If you've a mind to, you can easily get them to take a peanut in the shell from your hand. It never takes long. They're not really smart enough to be afraid for long. Once they're taking peanuts from your hand, it's a simple step to scritch them between the ears. The first time you do it, the opossum might startle after a short delay, but just a little. Soon, though, it won't mind being scritched.

Opossums are very, very unlikely to bite you. They just don't do that, as a rule. If you're gentle around them, they'll quickly get used to you and won't see you as any kind of threat. They're also not bad with pets. My kitties in California used to walk right up to them and sniff noses with them. Dogs, though, seem to want to bark like crazy at them, so they're not really compatible.

If you're not comfortable near wild animals, ignore what I wrote above and just watch them through your window. As my wife says, "Do not do what that man is doing."

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. "Do not do what that man is doing"

I've heard that one before.

[MineralMan]

15. My wife said exactly that one time at the Minnesota Zoo.

This huge moose had come up to the observation platform where I was standing, rested his lower jaw on the railing and looked at me intently with his big brown eyes. So, I reached out and began scratching his head between the ears. The moose made soft grunting sounds to encourage me to continue.

This despite a clearly worded sign forbidding me from touching the moose. Given the animal's behavior, I suspect that head-scratching was a common pleasure for it.

So, anyhow, a woman with a couple of pre-teen kids comes walking onto the platform. My wife looked at the kids and said, "Do not do what that man is doing." It has become a standard joke between the two of us.

[Jenoch]

60. When I was a kid

we drove to Alaska on a camping trip. (More than 1,200 miles of the AlCan Highway were unpaved back then). We went to a river so my dad and oldest brother could fish for salmon. There were dozens of people fishing from shore. This was in some sort of park and a young bull moose showed up. It seemed to be quite docile and people were petting it so my brothers and I did the same. My mother was horrified.

[MineralMan]

62. Nice memory for you.

[Jenoch]

64. I was only seven years old at the time.

But my mother kept a trip journal on all of our camping trips. When she was in a nursing home with dementia at the end of her life, the only way I could get her to have a conversation was by reading to her from those journals going back 40+ years. The odd thing is, my father just mentioned to me today and made me promise those journals were not tossed after he died. It was an easy promise to make.

[Fla Dem]

20. I have a feral cat I take care of. Built a little shelter for it and feed it.

She pretty much hangs around my yard 24/7, only occasionally taking a tour of the neighborhood at night. She has to be at lest 8 years old. I put a dish of dry cat food out for her in the evening and never had any problems with other animals, maybe another cat who stumbled across the dish. But usually she'll run it off. Recently I heard some noise outside, it was a opossum making a lot of noise eating from the cat's dish. I shined my flashlight on it and it just stared back at me and resumed eating. What I found remarkable, was my feral cat was just curled up nearby and never did anything.

[hfojvt]

33. I have read that cats and possums live together

without bothering each other.

I guess the cats know not to mess with those giant mice, or maybe their fur and meat are too greasy for their taste.

[Scootaloo]

46. And if they DO try to bite...

They have like, no power behind it. it's like being mawed by a puppy. There's pressure, and they have pointy bits so it's not comfortable but it's unlikely to cause damage. They can really dig in and get a good grip with those claws, though.

[MineralMan]

49. I didn't know that. None ever offered to bite in the first place.

I've always liked 'possums. I first met one in person when someone put it in my dorm room as a joke. I lived in a two-story dorm where the rooms opened to the outside walkway. I came back one day, and there it was, a young possum looking at me as I came into the room. I was surprised, but more curious, so I sat down on the bed and the critter walked over to me. I gave it a cookie or something, and then another one. From then on, it hung around the dorm and often slept under my bed. Finally, though, the dorm's R.A. told me that no pets were allowed, so it had to go. I put it in a box and carried it over to a nearby creek and turned it loose. Last time I looked, it had found a crawdad and was munching it happily.

[NickB79]

48. Have you seen many opossums this year in MN?

I'm on the south edge of the Twin Cities, and haven't seen ANY this year, even road kill. I was thinking the harsh winter did a number on their population.

[MineralMan]

50. I saw one the other morning when I went out to get the paper this week.

A raccoon, too, a couple of days before that. I'm out before dawn, so I get to see the local yard critters pretty often. We maintain a bird feeder and feed the squirrels, too, so they tend to show up for the leavings. We even had a small flock of wild turkeys in the yard once last year. I live in St. Paul, in a neighborhood near the edge of the city.

[NickB79]

53. The raccoons and turkeys are rock-solid in our winters

I always see a ton of them around here too, down on the Farmington/Lakeville border.

The opossums, though, they're on the ragged edge of their range even with climate change warming us up.

[Hekate]

54. A skunk has taken to wandering through our backyard. I would SO much rather have a possum!

Our foolish little dog has been sprayed 3 times, and has not learned from the experience. After dark she is now on a leash when she has to go outside. In the front yard.

Live and let live, I say, but I wish the skunk would find a different territory. Haven't seen a possum in years -- I'm sure they're still around somewhere though. As our vet says, the backyard fences are like highways for all the fruit-eating critters who live on the Central Coast.

Cheers!

[pinboy3niner]

55. We nose what you mean

[justiceischeap]

73. You can try contacting your local wildlife commission

and have the skunk relocated. When I lived in PA, we had a momma skunk give birth to a litter of baby skunks. They were stinky but cute. We called game and wildlife to have them relocated to a better area.

[valerief]

9. I love the Crazy Opossum Lady on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCATJh3BJNXTRX4EdxK2oDKw

[Mojorabbit]

14. I know her! LOL nt

[valerief]

16. Personally? She's hilarious with those opossum clips. And I learned so much!

And, of course, her website http://mepearl.com/.

Time to watch her Halloween clip. "Who isn't pained by the passing Agnes Morehead?"

&list=UUATJh3BJNXTRX4EdxK2oDKw

[AndreaCG]

27. That was damn funny!

Unlike the clip of the RW comic that's been posted in other threads

[840high]

68. Love it.

[TlalocW]

10. Growing up

We had them come up in the backyard to eat cat food. We lived in a small farming community on the edge of town (backyard butted up against wheat fields). A few years ago when I lived in a house and was caring for a friend's cat temporarily, I was surprised to see another one on the back porch calmly eating the cat's food while it watched, annoyed.

TlalocW

[freshwest]

11. Aww. Haven't seen any in years. And they just *love* cat kibble. So don't leave it on the porch.

Because they freak kitties out and they won't get any. The only wild animals my cats liked were rabbits. I don't think the feeling was mutual, tho'

[pinboy3niner]

17. One gave my dog a nasty scratch on her nose once

The dog was a little too inquisitive. And afterward, the 'possum just lay down and played dead. The kids in the neighborhood were getting a bit too inquisitive at that point, so we sent them away and left the animal alone.

One winter a family of them got into my garage and crawled up into the engine of a car I was working on. They built a big nest there with needles from a white pine in the backyard.

[Blue_In_AK]

19. I don't think they live up here...

...yet.

[Vinca]

21. I'm pretty sure I've got one living under my porch.

I think there's a rabbit living there, too. Strange bedfellows. LOL.

[ThoughtCriminal]

22. 11 !!

POGO!

[catbyte]

23. Before my husband got sick & we had to downsize our living space, we had a big old 2 story, 3 BR

house in town. It had a big front porch & a porch swing which was a favorite napping spot for our neighbor's cats. One morning I went out & saw what I thought was a cat curled up on the porch swing. All of a sudden, I was confronted by this needle-nosed stranger--a possum. He looked up at me, hissed, then went back to sleep, LOL. He was a frequent visitor.

[CaptainTruth]

24. Used to see them all the time in N CA.

I set up a "critter cam," motion-activated light & video recorder, with a bowl of dry cat food. In a typical night multiple opossums, racoons, & skunks would eat from it, a couple cats too.

The only bad thing about opossums (IMHO) is that they go to the bathroom where they sleep. One got into a cabinet in my workshop once & made a comfy nest in some old rags ... & after a short while MAN did it stink! I got the little critter out (in a bucket) & released him in a wildlife preserve, & had to scrub the cabinet out with bleach & air out the workshop.

[lastlib]

25. Q: "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

A: "To prove to the 'possum that it was possible!" . .

[pinboy3niner]

26. LOL!

[Liberal_in_LA]

66. lol. poor dears. always lying dead in LA roads

[nolabear]

29. Back in my wildlife rehab days we'd get rescued babies when moms were killed.

One of our volunteers was a teenaged girl who fell in love with the little ones. She wore a hooded jacket and piled them into the hood and went about her chores. One, named DJ (after another of the volunteers) would ride around with his arm cocked over the hood like he was surveying his kingdom. Fortunately they weren't too hard to release. The attitudes of the wild ones and the tame ones re human contact wasn't all that different.

[hfojvt]

30. baby mice ride on their mom's back too

I have seen that and normally I would have tried to whack mom for being in my mobile home, but I could not bear to squash those little babies.

Many people do seem to revile possums. I have now rescued four - maybe.

Once while going to my country property (by bicycle) I happened to see a possum by the side of the road. It was roadkill, but it still had three live babies clinging to it. I continued about a quarter mile to my property and did whatever tasks I was there to do, maybe just taking a walk around my woods too. Thinking that those babies were gonna die unless somebody did something.

Finally dug up an old oatmeal tub and some rags, and shoved those babies into it and put them in my backpack that way. Got home and made a living area for them out of an old cardboard box. Put some milk on a rag, which they sucked on (almost like nursing, only with cow's milk).

The next day I checked with the pet shop for care advice and was told "omigosh it is illegal to keep wild animals". Called the county game warden, and his wife told me "just leave them" and I responded "but they will die" and also "well that ship has sailed".

Anyway I kept them for a couple of days, feeding them milk and then apple slices. Was about a day away from releasing them when the game guy showed up and took them.

I told that story to a co-worker once and he said "the game warden probably took and drowned them". He lived in the country and hated possums.

The other one I tried to rescue was about the size of a kitten. Found him in my yard unconscious and bloody - perhaps my dogs had attack it. Took it inside tried to clean it up a little bit and gave it a warm bed in a box with some rags. It didn't seem to want to move, even after it woke up. So I set the box in my porch overnight and when I went out the next morning it was gone. I could have sworn it was too big to get under the door (which had perhaps a 1.5 inch gap at the bottom) but I could not find it anywhere in the porch.

[dionysus]

32. squeeee...

[Warpy]

35. I used to see one every night in Boston when I walked home from the subway

at midnight. At first it would hiss at me but after a couple of weeks, it just barely looked at me as we waddled past each other--it for its natural gait, me from fatigue.

I've always considered them inoffensive creatures and a potential tolerable meal if the nuclear holocaust happened and I survived the first volley of bombs. After all, I'd lived in the south where people considered them a delicacy and I suspect anything tastes good if you're starving.

Otherwise, I'm content to let them be, long snout, beady eyes and all.

[Solly Mack]

36. That's why I love them around the house.

They help protect me and my furry babies.

[MoonRiver]

37. I adore opossums!

Once, when I was taming our yard critters by leaving food out, I walked out on our deck while one was eating. S/he just very nonchalantly stepped on my foot while slowly exiting the deck! So cute!

[lastlib]

61. Possums are cool.....

Armadillos are definitely NOT!!

[MoonRiver]

72. All animals, except humans, are cool!

[Go Vols]

38. Since its cooled off

I leave the backdoor open at night,possums come in the house a few times a week to eat the cats food,its right by the open door.

I'll set my camera on the end table to see if I can get a pic over the next few days.

[northoftheborder]

39. Sorry....but no love for oppossums here.

Previous life experiences with those creatures bring forth hair-raising goose-bumps and stomach churning clinches.......

[Omaha Steve]

40. I had this post about faeries...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024661910

[mnhtnbb]

41. I looked out the window one day last March to see this guy checking out the birdfeeder.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Sancho]

42. Maybe true..but possums are a bit of a pest around here...

they climb down trees into our yard and drive our schnauzers crazy at night. They hiss, bare teeth, and occasionally get into the attic or bird feeder. I end up the back yard after midnight in my jammies with a broom. Happened more than once.

Even though they may have all the positives listed above, I'd rather see fewer of them. Sorry...

[B Calm]

44. I agree with you! I live trap them and take them for a little truck ride.

I get about 5 miles from home I release them.

[hunter]

43. The big old males can be pretty scary looking.

They brawl with other males and get quite scarred and torn up.

Other than that, opossums don't seem to fight. Other animals are something to avoid or coexist with, or something easy to eat.

The aggressive birds in our neighborhood, the jays, the crows, the ravens, the humming birds, harass opossums mercilessly, probably because opossums eat eggs and baby birds.

Opossums love to dig through our compost heap and it makes our dogs crazy. Our idiot dogs probably wouldn't wake up if someone was stealing our television, but an opossum intruding upon their territory and digging in the compost for dinner somehow offends them.

[Oilwellian]

47. We have one that has endeared our hearts

He's old and appears in our living room window each night, in search of any nibbles the bird feeder may have left behind. The window goes to the floor so there is a face-off each night when the possum comes right up to the window and peers in, driving our two dogs into a barking frenzy. It's almost as though he purposely teases them so he can walk away nonchalantly with a chuckle. LOL

I was glad to see the article mention they eat ticks. A recent study found that is cutting into the spread of Lyme disease. So leave the possum be. They are doing good things.

[d_r]

52. # 11.

taste like chicken

[Violet_Crumble]

56. Until I saw that, I thought all marsupials were cute...

I'll have to change my thinking to all Australian marsupials are cute. I mean, look at the difference:


Not a North American marsupial - CUTE!




Not a North American marsupial - CUTE!




A possum - CUTE!




North American marsupial - NOT CUTE!

[Omaha Steve]

59. Not all fairytales are fantasy

From reply #40e above. More at the old DU link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024661910



Dear Steven,

This is a real fairytale about the endangered Fairy Possum and it desperately needs your help.

This fairy-like creature has lived in the tallest flowering trees on Earth, deep in the Mountain Ash forests of Central Highlands, for over 20 million years. But in just the last 100 years, its world has come literally crashing down.

Industrial logging has destroyed the little creature’s only home on Earth and now less than 1,500 Fairy Possums remain. If logging of our native forests continues at its current rate, the Fairy Possum will become extinct within your lifetime.

We must act now or this defenceless little creature will be lost forever.

View the fairytale now to help this real fairy live happily ever after: http://www.wilderness.org.au/e/fairypossum/

Together, we can make this fairytale come true.

Yours for wilderness,
Lyndon Schneiders
National Director

[Violet_Crumble]

69. Kudos to you for contributing to the Wilderness Society!

They do really good stuff. I've been a member from long ago when they were known as the Tasmanian Wilderness Society and the Franklin River blockade was happening. And they have the honour of being the only organisation this hater of bumper stickers has had a sticker from on any of my cars, though it was my first car and it was a pile of crap anyway....



Here's some stuff on the history of the Wilderness Society...

https://www.wilderness.org.au/history-franklin-river-campaign-1976-83

[edhopper]

57. Almost hit one last night with my car,

in QUEENS, NY!!!

[JEB]

58. 11. Barbecue.

[Jenoch]

63. The first time I saw an opossum

I was in high school and it was caught in a live trap my dad had set up to catch the rabbits that were eating his apple trees (winter time). The thing was hissing and bearing it's teeth. We thought it might try to bite us when we released it. We put on long, leather welding gloves. I opened the trap and the opossum didn't move. I tipped the trap over and it just ambled up a pine tree. His naked ears looked like they had been damaged by frostbite. I've never seen one in northern Minnesota. I think the winters are too harsh.

[LeftInTX]

65. As long as they don't try to get in my attic

Same with rats and raccoons. We had to seal our chimney permanently, completely because of critters. We had the chimney shut but the raccoons figured out how to open it. I see a lot of bloody possums around here. I think they look like huge rats. I almost stepped on a small possum one time. I was so relieved that it wasn't a rat.

[beam me up scottie]

70. Already a member of their fan club.

I raised an orphan opossum a few years back and he was adorable. I found him when I was riding my bike, his mom was road kill and he was the only one of the babies left alive. There's this little hairless mole rat looking thing in the middle of the highway hissing at the cars as they drove by.

Some people around here eat them but have you ever see what opossums eat?

[gollygee]

71. I had a neighbor got nuts over an opossum

Supposedly it was living in our yard (because we had more trees) and therefore it was our fault it existed and we had an obligation to cut down our excessive trees or do whatever it took to drive this opossum out of the neighborhood. They kept trying to get us to cut down our trees. They were relentless. It was really annoying. Then the guy lost his job and they had to move. The new neighbors have never mentioned an opossum.

I hadn't thought about that for years. They were freaked out that wildlife existed. And really upset - at us as though we invited the opossum in. I don't even know if it was living in a tree of ours or in our yard or whatever, as I never saw it.