Possums are among the neatest creatures there are. North America's only native marsupial has been around for about 70 million years, which means they were probably dodging the feet of fast moving dinosaurs! "They're so darn stupid," people say. "They run right out into the road and into oncoming cars!" An ex- coworker once said, "Anything that stupid deserves to die." I use to wonder why that guy was still breathing. The fact that possums frequently wind up as pavement pancakes make then too often the butt of the joke. Too bad, because if one studies possums, they'll find that these critters live a pretty interesting life.

Nature made up for the opossum's high mortality rate -- as prey, and as not very hardy babies -- by making sure there are plenty of them. Possums have lots of babies!

Like all marsupials, opossum babies are not fully developed when they emerge from the womb. The young, up to 26 of them in a litter are not much more than glorified embryos when they are born. The young exit the birth canal,then crawl through their mother's fur until they find her pouch. Once inside, the first 13 babies will find a waiting nipple to latch onto. These lucky 13 will be plugged in for the duration. Late arrivals, finding no room at the inn will die.

Why are the roads littered with dead possums -- are they really that stupid?

Opossums have small brains but they're hardly stupid. Their brains has evolved sufficiently to insure the survival of their species. Cars and other dangers of the modern world are relatively new -- there hasn't been enough time to develop a defense.

One reason so many of them are hit by cars is because opossums are almost blind. They are nearsighted and simply can't see them coming. On the other hand, possums have an excellent sense of smell and can track the scent of food for quite a distance. Unfortunately, sometimes the scent leads them across a busy road where -- -- !

Do possums bite? Not very often, though they are certainly equipped for it. Possums have 50 teeth, more then any other mammal -- but their first line of defense when threatened is, instead of biting, to show off all those teeth and let out a long slow "hisss." If that doesn't work, they might bite. Usually though, if the show of teeth and hissing doesn't work, then opossums will allow their eyes to glaze over, slowly drop their bodies onto the ground, open the mouth slightly -- and "die." The possum's ability to feign death is legendary. The heart almost stops, respiration becomes slight, and body temperature goes down. A predator can actually bite a catatonic possum and there will be no reaction. Later, when the danger is gone, and assuming the possum isn't injured, it will simply wake up and go on its way.

A friend once said, "Don't you wish humans could do that? Instead of going to war," she said, "we would all just -- play dead!"

These photographs were made at Olympic Wildlife Rescue, McCleary, WA. Rehabilitated possums were released to the wild.

To learn more about opossums, visit the website for the National Opossum Society at http://www.opossum.org

These photographs are © copyright 2003, Carl Cook. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, including internet use. Photographs are protected by and registered with Digimarc. Prints are available. For information or to comment, please click here. clcook@olywa.net

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