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a Sonoma Land Trust stewardship blog

Mountains + Molehills focuses on the adventures of the Sonoma Land Trust stewardship crew, and the day-to-day challenges and blessings that they face. The daily schedule of each crew member may involve working with power shovels, connecting with landowners, hiking around the Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor, building habitat for burrowing owls, avoiding skunks, trooping through poison oak, and so much more. Every day is an adventure, and we hope to share those adventures with you!

the secret life of opossums

8/25/2016

6 Comments

 

by Tony Nelson

​Opossums (not possums or opossomi) are curious creatures. The only marsupials in North America, they have opposable “thumbs” on their hind feet to help them climb and prehensile tails that help them cling to trees. They eat just about anything, including dead animals, rodents, amphibians, snails and slugs, plants and fruit. They are apparently mostly immune to snake venom — and have partial or total immunity to rabies, which makes them an okay critter to occasionally have in the yard.
 
We all know that they will ‘play possum’ (or ‘play opossum’) when threatened, but that seems to be a last resort. According to one source, they’ll also run (is there a predator that can’t outrun an opossum?), growl, belch, urinate and defecate. When playing dead, they roll over, stiffen, bare their teeth, foam at the mouth and secrete a foul odor. Utilizing bodily functions so readily to make themselves unappealing leads us to think of them as dirty, smelly things, but it’s a pretty effective adaptation for defense.
 
According to the National Opossum Society, these animals are typically gentle and placid, and tend to avoid confrontation. That was my understanding as well, which makes a recent encounter — captured on cameras that Sonoma Land Trust and our partner, Pathways for Wildlife, installed recently — all the more interesting. 
​
​A skunk approaches the opening of a culvert under a busy road …
Picture

​Out of nowhere, an opossum attacks!
Picture
​
​Skunk retreats, with opossum pushing forward … slowly … 
Picture
We don’t know what sent this stocky marsupial into a frenzy. Maybe there was roadkill nearby that it wanted for itself, or it had some young nearby to protect (like opossums, skunks have a varied diet, so maybe a small opossum was on the menu). Regardless, it’s an unusual display of ferocity, all the more remarkable because other animals typically give skunks a wide and well-earned berth. A recent study in Ecology by Maximilian L. Allen et al. found that skunks were the most frequent victors, along with bobcats, in many encounters with other mid-size meat- and carrion-eaters. They even witnessed a skunk stealing the meal of a puma (which is nearly 100 times the size of a skunk!). Clearly, that mountain lion and most of the other animals encountered in their study had had previous experiences with a skunk’s defense mechanism.

​Perhaps this particular opossum hadn’t had the pleasure of being sprayed by a skunk yet and didn’t know any better. Or maybe the opossum’s defenses just make it one character that skunks can’t top. Opossums might be so stinky to begin with that they don’t care about getting zapped by a skunk. Don’t tell the National Opossum Society folks I said that. I like opossums, really — and I like them even more now.

​Tony Nelson is Sonoma Land Trust's Sonoma Valley program manager.
6 Comments
Marcia Johnson
8/26/2016 11:49:44 am

Hi Tony:

Really great article. I've taken one unreleasable Opossum into classrooms & don't remember a bad smell - he probably ate better than wild ones! Much thanks, I learned a lot.

:) m

Reply
Kaaren
8/26/2016 12:16:36 pm

They are also a welcome visitor to organic gardens as they find snails, slugs and beetles the epitome of fine dining. And really a momma opossum carrying her babies on her back is so adorable.

Tony thanks for the opossum shout out - I love those little critters.

Reply
Margaret Spaulding
8/27/2016 08:37:52 am

Wonderful. A few years ago I forgot to hang up a load of wash in a basket in the garage. Two days later I went to hang it up and discovered a very young opossum had found her way into but not out of the basket. Had begun chewing on fabric, probably to get a bit of moisture. Poor baby. Let her out of the basket and she toddled off into the woods. Hope she found food and water soon.

Reply
Bill Stewart
8/30/2016 02:17:26 pm

A few years ago I heard a noise from the redwood trees near my back door in semi-urban Silicon Valley. Looked up, and there was a possum about 30' up with a young raccoon a few feet below him, and three other raccoons nearby. Raccoons saw me and took off, but the possum stayed there a little while before deciding it was safe to get away.

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Elaine Webster link
12/29/2017 12:55:47 pm

Before we joined German Shepherd rescue (Thulani division for senior dogs)we had rescued several Greyhounds, one of which was super prey driven. I'll spare you the gory details of what he caught in our fenced backyard. (One raccoon actually won a fight and we were off to the vet the next morning for lots of dog stitches.) The only puzzle he couldn't solve was the opossum who played dead with each pursuit, only to toddle off an hour later. The dog finally gave up trying. I'd say opossums deserve our respect. Plus I think they're cute and I don't have a snail or slug problem as long as they come by the garden once-in-awhile.

Reply
Michael Yares
12/29/2017 08:54:25 pm

I find they enjoy chicken eggs a bit too much... I have read that they are adaptable to relocation.

Reply



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    Sonoma Land Trust is a local nonprofit based in Santa Rosa, CA, that conserves scenic, natural, agricultural and open lands in Sonoma County for the benefit of the community and future generations. This blog focuses on SLT's stewardship team, whose members do hands-on work to directly protect, restore, and safeguard the land for generations to come.

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