I was hoping to trap a raccoon that’s been trying to get into the chicken coop but instead, I caught this little guy. I also made a 34 second video of his catch and release below the facts part.
I didn’t know much about these marsupial creatures so I looked up some facts about them:
- The word opossum refers to the North American species (those found in other areas are called possums)
- The Virginia opossum is only found in the United States
- Opossums are related to Kangaroos, Koalas, Tasmanian Devils, and Brazilian Short-hair Pigmy Possums
- Opossums help gardens by eating snails, slugs, insects, snakes, rats and overripe fruit.
- Opossums are highly resistant to diseases such as rabies because of its efficient immune system and lower body temperature.
- Opossums are not a public health threat.
- There is far less of a risk of infection from opossums than from house pets.
- The opossum’s greatest enemies are cars and domestic pets.
- Another predator of opossums is people, who hunt them for food, sport, and pelts.
- Other enemies include owls, foxes, and larger wildlife.
- Opossums compete with sheep and rabbits for food.
- Opossums have more teeth than any other North American land mammal (50).
- Opossums are not territorial and move to wherever food is available.
- Opossums cannot hang upside down by their tail, but use their tail to climb.
- Marsupial refers to the reproductive system, which entails the very young embryos being born and attaching to the mothers nipples
- Opossums do not have good eyesight or hearing — they rely mainly on their sense of smell.
- Opossums are very clean animals and groom themselves much like a cat does.
- Opossums are also found in Australia and South America
These facts were found at: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/students/114-sum98-opossums/misc.htm
My favorite part of this video is at the end when I pan over to the chickens… They’re all like “What the heck was that?”
Two Barn Farm 