Daytime Opossum

[trv005]

I just had an encounter today. My escape artist was within a foot of a full grown opposum befor 8 am this morning in my front yard. She just stood there and I reached down and picked her up. It was not aggressive just looking for an easy meal. Seemed confused like it had been disturbed from sleep and thought "why not". I called animal control and asked about them being out during the day and they told me it's normal, especially in colder weather when food is more scarce and that opossums can't get rabies. I still don't want them around my house, my cat has had an encounter and nearly lost his tail in the past.

 

[jtn42248]

I just had an encounter today. My escape artist was within a foot of a full grown opposum befor 8 am this morning in my front yard. She just stood there and I reached down and picked her up. It was not aggressive just looking for an easy meal. Seemed confused like it had been disturbed from sleep and thought "why not". I called animal control and asked about them being out during the day and they told me it's normal, especially in colder weather when food is more scarce and that opossums can't get rabies. I still don't want them around my house, my cat has had an encounter and nearly lost his tail in the past.

Opossums are ill tempered foul attitude beast and whether they can get rabies or not does not matter. I had an encounter with one in my garage once. It was resting on the hood of my car for warmth and was not going to give in and leave. So, I did what any brave person would do...abandoned my plans for the evening and went back inside. I hate opossums.

 

[gawildlife]

Foul tempered??? Not on your life. Grinners are an archaic primitive species but definitely not foul tempered. Yes, like any wild animal they will bite if cornered and do a pretty good bluff to warn off confrontations but in the hundreds, if not thousands, I've handled over the years i cannot say I found one that truly went on the offensive with me. Defense absolutely but never a direct assault upon my person.
Now before someone mistakes me for a grinner lover I am not as every one that passes through my hands gets thumped in the head but let's set the record straight opossums for some reason engender a fear and revulsion far exceeding their very limited abilities.
As I said they are very primitive being our only North American marsupial they go way back into the fossil record. They exhibit an almost simplistic existence seeming to move only from meal to meal with the only thought in between being sleep. Somehow reproduction is accomplished in a timely manner yet I see no elaborate or planned mating process as seen in more advanced species. At best the only apparent higher reasoning I've ever observed in a opossum is the occasional gathering of leaves to line a cavity it has chosen as a resting place.

BTW, if you grab one by the end of the tail you can safely carry it wherever you want.

 

[trv005]

I agree with your assessment of their temerment. I was able to reach down and pick my girl up within a foot of her stalker and didn't even see any teeth. I let it be and it eventually made its way back to whereever it was before being disturbed.
I had never seen one during the day so I worried it may be sick. Animal control told me they cannot get rabies but I inquired into this statement for my own curiosity. A good friend of mine is a vet and he gave me the stats on the 2013 reported rabies cases.
They are as follows:
2013 there were about 6000 cases of rabies reported in US.
1900 raccoons
1500 skunks
1600 bats
344 foxes and
2 possums along with other odds and ends

So, yes they can get rabies but it's highly unlikely and conditions have to be perfect. The opossum body temp is too low to properly incubate the virus.
The DNR also told me trapping and relocating is not going to keep them from returning as they can travel pretty far during night hours. They are just trying to survive so preditor proofing your coops and runs is the best way to avoid a flock fatality.

 

[gawildlife]

Their simplistic nature makes them the easiest of all North American species to trap. Consider them four legged stomachs without a brain. Being true omnivores any bait will suffice and having no observable sense of self preservation or cognitive abilities we would recognize they have no fear of traps or trapping devices nor do they seem to have any ability for a learned response to avoid traps.
Grinners are the bane of trappers bearing a very low value pelt, $1-$2 averages, are present over most of the lower forty eight and attracted to every form of bait or lure that can be even remotely considered edible. Many times trappers have to first catch all the grinners in any given area before the traps are empty long enough to catch the targeted species.
This is the reason I thump grinners because on my jobs if I release a grinner it'll be in my trap again tomorrow.

 

[deadsnake]

Before you go eradicating all the possums please note they do not carry rabies and they eat COPPERHEADS and rattlesnakes and rats and other undesirable creatures. Look it up then put your gum away.

 

[Millworker26]

It upsets me when I occasionally catch an opossum in the Dukes dog proof trap which I put out for the raccoons. Personally, I don't think opossum pose my chickens much of a threat, so I dislike having to kill the occasional one that I catch.

 

[Folly's place]

On the other hand, I have lost birds to opossums, and I have horses. The possum poo is a real threat to horses! The EPM transmitted will kill or seriously disable some horses, and the possums are not welcome in my yard, barn, or coop area. If I do trap one, it's buried. My nice mare, and EPM survivor, is disabled, and a pasture pet, no longer a riding horse. Mary