Re: Possums (A Challenge)

[Allan Edels <edels@msn.com>]

About Opossums -

> From the website www.opossum.org/facts.htm:
(I've prefixed each paragraph with ">>")

============================================================
> > North America's only marsupial (female has a pouch) mammal. The female 
> > carries and nurses her young in her marsupium until they are about 2 to 3 
> > months old; then they are carried on her back another 1 to 2 months 
> > whenever they are away from the den.

> > Size of a cat; grey to black fur; black eyes; pink nose, feet and tail; 
> > black ears; and pointed nose.

> > Solitary and nocturnal: usually slow moving; when frightened and unable to 
> > flee may fall into an involuntary shock-like state, "playing 'possum".

> > Hiss or growl and show their 50 sharp teeth when frightened; but, in 
> > reality, they are gentle and placid? they prefer to avoid all 
> > confrontations and wish to be left alone.

> > Omnivorous: eats insects, snails, rodents, berries, over-ripe fruit, 
> > grasses, leaves, and carrion; occasionally will eat snakes, ground eggs, 
> > corn or other vegetables.

> > Adaptable; able to live wherever water, food, and shelter exist. At home 
> > in trees; uses its prehensile tail to help stabilize position when 
> > climbing? it does not, however, hang by its tail.

> > Few live beyond the age of 1 year in the environment; rare reports of 
> > living 5 to 10 years in captivity. Killed by many predators: humans (and 
> > cars), dogs, cats, owls, and larger wildlife.
=========================================================

The aforementioned shock-like state would cause the opossum to appear to be 
dead, very convincingly; and probably causes the anal muscles to loosen up, 
emitting the noxious fumes (or triggers the gland to emit the odor), thereby 
enhancing the effect.

Allan Edels
> From: Jacquie <jacquieh49@yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: jacquieh49@yahoo.com
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Possums (A Challenge)
> Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 05:27:28 -0700 (PDT)
>
> I never post because I'm not a scientist, but I just
> have to pipe up here because 'possums, I know (ugh,
> nasty creatures). They are MUCH more convincing at
> playing dead than a human could ever be - or any other
> animal I can think of except maybe a hognose snake.
> They go limp, open their mouths, close their eyes,
> hang their tongues out and emit an unbelievably
> noxious dead smell from an anal gland. Actually, they
> emit this smell all of the time on a _very_ slightly
> less offensive scale...
>
> When I saw the Discovery channel show about T-Rex that
> was made with Dr. Horner's view that T-Rex was a
> scavenger and showed him with blood all over his head
> and really yucky and dirty looking, the first thing I
> thought was, "Ewwwww, they must have smelled like
> incredibly big 'possums! I sure am glad they're not
> around any more!" :o)
>
> > On Thu, 05 May 2005 13:53:00 -0600 Swift Claw
> > <missraptor@deadraccoon.com> writes:
> >
> Nobody seems to have mentioned that 'possums play
> dead as a defense against predators instead of running
> away from them.  Or is this just an urban myth
> devised to confuse Colorado-bound people like me who
> have never actually seen one of these creatures?
> >
> > --- Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com> wrote:
>
> > It is used by possums as a last-ditch attempt at
> surviving an attack.  If a possum has other options
> available, it will use them first.
> >
> > Playing dead sometimes works for humans who are
> > being attacked by bears,provided that the bear isn't
> hungry.  The problem is that most humans aren't mind
> readers.  I also suspect that few possums are mind
> readers.
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Yahoo! Mail Mobile
> Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone.
> http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail