I spent I don’t know how many hours poring over the thousands of pictures in my hard drive to find these.
It happened on March 30, 2016, at my old house. These 3 opossums suddenly appeared in my backyard in broad daylight, they frolicked, and ran around, sometimes after each other, exploring, smelling this and that until they got tired and decided that this place is not all that interesting after all.
OK, my wife tells me “nobody likes opossums, they are ugly. I bet nobody will click on Like”
How about you, my friendly visitors who, like me, care about wildlife, how about you do me the favor of proving her wrong?
That would be just great. I don’t know about you, but I have a soft spot for the ugly, the misfits in this world. They were born this way, and nobody loves them just for that single reason. Is that fair? No, of course not! So, let’s be kind to these little unattractive fellows and give them a warm welcome 😀
This truth about these little animals was revealed to me that day: they are playful! I was amazed to see them running around after each other, obviously playing around the yard. And they were clearly a family. You can see that in the pictures, there is one who is the child, still very immature, still obediently following his parents.
The opossum is a marsupial. Marsupials are known for that particular feature: the abdominal pouch in which their young will stay for a while after birth. I think that pretty much everybody knows that the kangaroo is a marsupial as well. But there many more, like the koala, the Tasmanian devil, the wombat, etc.
Opossums are known to be very helpful in getting the ticks population under control. They are also scavengers, eating among other things, dead animals and even the bones, this particular bit is thought to be necessary for their calcium needs.
Regarding the famous behavior of opossum’s playing dead when threatened, according to many articles, this is an involuntary reaction to danger, like fainting. The animal will lie down on its side, drawback its lips, foam at the mouth, and release some foul-smelling fluids. This is believed to be an effective deterrent for predators who would not eat carrion. The opossum will stay in that state for at least a few minutes , and up to 4 hours. Again, this is something they do not control, so you could find an opossum in that state, but he/she might not be dead. If that happens, you will have to be very patient, and wait to make sure before you think of throwing the body into the trash.
I like them ? and to see them gamboling about must have been fun ?
Yes, it was fun, and I think I tried hard to catch that moment with my old Nikon camera. It is because I remembered this moment so well that I wanted to find the pictures I took that day to share them here. But, unfortunately, I found out that there were less pics usable than I was hoping for. I really should have filmed the action. Now, that would have been an amazing video.
Yayy, glad you were able to find these opossum gems! Nothing wrong at all with being a misfit hehe. Now did you ever take pictures of those raccoons?? ?
I posted pictures of a raccoon we saw in one of the street during one of our after-dinner walk a few months ago. Look in the Archives page.
Ah yes, I do remember. Were there any other animals that you’ve only seen at Ganesta vs now?
I can’t think of any. There are so many more animals around my current neighborhood. And, by the way, tonight we saw a raccoon, or rather its tail. It was buried deep under the dead leaves at the top of a palm tree. We heard that it was chewing on something. But we couldn’t be sure what that might be.
Good hiking grounds come with plenty of interesting animals I’m sure haha. Oooo actually I spotted an animal scurrying across the parking lot today in my complex, and I do believe it was also a raccoon! They’re everywhere haha (trash pandas ;]).