My current dog is spoiled. He’s the first dog I’ve owned that gets to sleep inside on a custom dog bed. All my other dogs slept outside in a doghouse. The doghouse was nicely furnished with soft bedding and pillows, and if it got down to freezing, we’d let him sleep inside. Otherwise, they slept outside. I always felt they were in charge of perimeter defense, my early warning system. We never had issues back then of critters getting into our garden or messing with our rabbits. The dog took care of that.
I remember nights lying in bed, listening to my first dog sprinting across the yard, growling a woof, woof, woof, then slamming into the fence as he lunged to catch a critter scrambling along the top. I always listened carefully to hear if he might need backup if he tangled with a raccoon; they’re tough customers. Most of the time, he handled himself pretty well; rats, ground squirrels, and gophers were his main prey. He’d dispatch them and eat them, crunching up the bones. One morning, I went out to feed him breakfast, and he was in no mood to eat. That was unusual. Upon further investigation, I found that he had eaten half an opossum overnight! So that’s what the noise was. I felt bad about it. I like opossums.
While opossums may look like big, scary rats, they are actually pretty cool creatures. There are over 125 different species of opossum in the Americas, but the only one that lives here in North America is the Virginia Opossum. It’s the only animal in our area representing the marsupial order Didelphimorphia. Didelphimorphia comes from the Ancient Greek words for “two” (di) and “wombs” (delphus). Because the female opossum does indeed have a bifurcated reproductive tract, meaning they have two uteri and two vaginal canals. Which may lead one to wonder how that matches up with a male opossum’s reproductive system, and the answer is perfectly, because male opossums have a two-pronged penis. We don’t need to get into the details of that arrangement, but suffice it to say it’s worked quite well for them for millions of years.
Sometime between February and June, the opossums will mate, and after about 12 weeks, the female will give birth to 20 bee-sized young. These clawed, embryonic-looking babies will crawl their way from the uterus to the mom’s pouch, where the first joeys to arrive get to latch onto one of her 13 nipples. The rest are out of luck.
The joeys will stay in mom’s pouch for about 2-3 months before they emerge to hang out with their mother for another 100 days. They literally hang out, or maybe I should say hang on, their mother, hitching a ride, clinging to their mother’s back as she scavenges for food.
As far as food goes, opossum’s diets are pretty wide ranging, they’ll eat pretty much so anything they can get their little paws with opossable thumbs on, fruit, insects, worms, birds, eggs, snails, rats, mice, carrion, small reptiles, even rattlesnakes; and if they get bit by a rattlesnake, no worries, they’re immune to the venom, plus they have a naturally high immunity to many diseases
The more famous attribute of opossums is their ability to “play dead,” which scientists call “tonic immobility”. Opossums don’t have the monopoly on this skill, as many invertebrates, reptiles, birds, and other organisms display this behavior when confronted with a threat. The opossum will enter a catatonic state, becoming limp, with its mouth open, showing its teeth (50 of them, the most of any land mammal), and sometimes foaming at the mouth. Their breathing slows, and they may even release a foul-smelling liquid to make it seem like they’re rotting, discouraging the predator from trying to eat them. It’s usually a pretty effective deterrent, except when they’re scavenging a roadkill and they try it with an oncoming car, or a dog as persistent as mine was.
Overall, if you don’t mind losing a few pieces of overripe fruit, having opossums in your yard isn’t a bad thing. They don’t make permanent nests or burrows; they just want to stay out of sight and come out at night. I always appreciate critters that add a little wildness to our suburban existence.
For more information about these critters, there is a National Opossum Society (of course there is) or the Opossum Society of the United States (OSUS). Check them out, they both have all sorts of good info about these critters and how to deal with orphans if you find one.
