Opossums . . . America's Only Marsupial

I had a ground squirrel living in the housing for my electric gate and I wanted to get him out of there before he chewed up the belt or something else of importance. So I put out a cage trap with all the good things that ground squirrels love to eat. And bingo! Something was in the cage.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled the cardboard off the top and instead of a ground squirrel, I was looking into the eyes of a terrified opossum.

Even though the North and South America marsupials are spelled "opossums", the "o" is silent and not pronounced. The other "possums" are much smaller and are only found in Australia and the Indonesian islands of New Guinea and Sulawesi.

So back to my story. I didn't want to leave the opossum in the cage because I didn't know how long he had been in there and when he had had his last sip of water. But on the other hand, I was babysitting my 2-1/2 year old grandson that day and didn't want him near all those teeth!

So I told my grandson that we were going on an adventure! I put him in my Polaris and collected the cage and put it in the back. We drove down to a spot on my property where I often see opossums on my Ring camera wandering around.

I parked where my grandson would have a good view but told him to stay in the vehicle while I released the animal. My grandson was all eyes. I opened the gate and carried the cage to the other side of the fence, still on my property. I opened the lid carefully as not to get punctured from those teeth! Opossums have more teeth than any other North American land mammal . . . approximately fifty!

Mr. Opossum was scared to death and hissing at me. I had stepped back and when he realized that I wasn't going to harm him, he crawled out the top of the cage and ambled off to safety. My grandson was fascinated and excited to tell his parents all about it!

So let me tell you a few reasons why you don't want to harm an opossum.

First of all, they are rabies resistant because their body temperature is too low for the virus to survive. So you don't have to worry about rabies.

They eat more than 90% of the ticks they encounter, keeping your property tick free. They eat cockroaches, crickets, beetles, mice and rats. They also eat snakes and are resistant to snake venom. So opossums get rid of all the things you'd rather not have around your home.

They are incredibly clean and self-groom much as a cat does.

Like kangaroos and koalas, opossums are marsupials and carry their young in their pouch. Apparently the babies can remain in Mom's pouch for up to three months.

Unfortunately, their lifespan is short in the wild . . . just one or two years. This is because of predators, human contact, road accidents, pets, poison and swimming pools.

So next time that you encounter an opossum on your property, just walk away. They are docile creatures and are very import to our ecosystem.

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