Look at those beautiful ears and some of his 50 teeth
Opossum have many interesting features. They have 50 teeth and a hairless tail for grasping branches. The opossum does not hang upside down by the tail, a common misconception. The opossum also has opposable thumbs on its hind feet for holding onto branches.
Their diet includes all types of bugs and insects including cockroaches, crickets and beetles. They love snails. They also eat mice and rats. The nocturnal opossum is attracted to our houses by the availability of water, pet food left out at night and overripe, rotting fruit that has fallen from trees. The opossum in turn helps keep our yards clean and free of unwanted, harmful garden pests and rodents, which may carry diseases. The opossum has earned the title of "Nature's Little Sanitation Engineer."
A female opossum gives birth to helpless young as tiny as honeybees. Babies immediately crawl into the mother's pouch, where they continue to develop. As they get larger, they will go in and out of the pouch and sometimes ride on the mother's back as she hunts for food. Opossums may give birth to as many as 20 babies in a litter, but fewer than half of them survive. Some never even make it as far as the pouch. The babies climb up the mother's fur and into her pouch where they find a teat. Some babies will not find their way to the pouch and will die. If they make it to the pouch, only babies who find one of the thirteen teats will survive. They will stay in the pouch and suckle for 55-60 days. Then they will move out of the pouch and spend another four to six weeks on their mother's back. In some parts of their range, females will have three litters a year.
When an Opossum is threatened it will exhibit behaviors like running, growling, belching, urinating and even defecating. Sometimes it will "play possum" and roll over, become stiff, drool, and its breathing will become slow and shallow. This coma-like state can last up to four hours.
To keep the dogs from getting the little fellow I moved him into a hollow tree outside the fence. I made sure he had water and plenty of apples and grapes to eat. I plan to keep an eye on him to see if he can make it.
More information at http://www.opossum.org/
To contact Linda:
Linda Gast
www.hummingbirdmountain.com
www.mariposaspca.org
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