Oh, Possum

Photo borrowed from Bing

Weird things amuse me and the possum is one of them.  Yes, technically, it is the opossum, but you knew what I was talking about.  The only marsupial native to the United States, the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) varies in size more than almost any other mammal in the world.  A male living in PA can weigh as much as 14 pounds, while a female in the South American tropics may weigh only 11 ounces.

An opossum’s tail is prehensile, allowing it to be used like a fifth paw to carry small objects (such as nesting material) or grab a branch for balance, but they can’t hang upside down by tail alone.  They have fifty teeth (more than any other North American mammal) and opposable thumbs on their hind feet that have no claw. 

Possums walk in an ipsilateral manner (I love that word), meaning that they step with both left feet before stepping with both right.  Of course, everyone knows that a possum “plays dead” when threatened.  In reality, this appears to be an involuntary near coma like response that can last up to four hours while the opossum lies on its side, mouth and eyes open, tongue lolling, and emitting a green fluid from its anus whose putrid odor tends to repel predators.  The opossum is omnivorous and is one of the very few animals that eat copperheads and rattlesnakes as they have an unusually high tolerance for venom.

Mating season lasts from December through June.  Three litters may be raised per year and up to fifty young may be born at one time.  Most do not survive as there are only 13 nipples, arranged in a circle of 12 with one more in the center.  The young are called joeys and they will remain in their mother’s pouch for about 2-1/2 months before climbing out onto her back.  Perhaps the oddest thing about opossums is their genitalia.  The female has two parallel vaginae and the male has a bifurcated penis.

Tom Waits has sung about them: “Road kill has a season, just like anything, it’s possums in the autumn, and farm cats in the spring.” 

See, I told you I like weird things.