Possums Field Notes
~by Jim Eagleman
W
hile on a walk recently I saw an opossum (possum) scamper up a hill. The little critter wasn’t an adult, but a sub-adult, some call a “juvee,” short for juvenile. It made me recall some of the things we shared with the public about the “awesome possum” during our park nature talks. The possum is a true survivor. I had no doubt this little guy did just fine this past winter. Take a look at the possum the next time you see one poking around your compost pile or woodshed, or lumbering down a county road. Never in a hurry, it ambles along with
50 Our Brown County March/April 2022
almost a sideways walk. You might assume since it is slow walking it must be slow thinking, or slow witted. No, its calculating manner has helped it avoid trouble, like dogs, people, predators, and even cars—but not all traffic. “We tend to see more possums hit along roads more than any other Indiana fur-bearer,” my DNR biologist friends tell me when they conduct their annual road-killed counts of raccoons and deer. Also called pole cat, woods rat, or forest kitty, the possum is a relic of times gone by. We understand that an animal, not too different from today’s version, was living at the time of dinosaurs. Now, that is a testament to survivability! What allows it to last all this time on the planet? What qualities make it nearly invincible? If confronted, we know the possum’s defense mechanism is to play dead, saliva trickling from the mouth as it assumes a curled-up posture. All you did was maybe touch it with a stick. This feigning death act has helped the possum avoid almost every attempt to attack or kill it. A predator might see it unnecessary to continue a murderous attack if the prey instantly lies motionless, even defecating and rolling in its own
