Are Opossums Misunderstood?

[McChooky]

I had to seal a couple holes in a catio to get rid of a bunch of possums here.They slept hanging by their tails in the trees beside the chicken coop at night .Waiting on me to forget and leave a door open at night? Probably. Don't say nobody warned you

 

[Folly's place]

We've lost birds to opossums too, before we had the safer coop that we developed after issues with them, opossums, and once, rats.
Having horses, opossums are NOT welcome near our barn or hay storage area, at least. They carry an intestinal; parasite, not a problem for them, but very bad for equines. 'Sarcocystis neurona', causing EPM, a fatal or severely debilitating neurological disease. One of my horses had it twice, survived thanks to treatment, and was unsound, not ridable, the rest of her life.
Just not a fan of opossums!!!
And they can get rabies occasionally.
Mary

 

[Zenmonkey]

And they can get rabies occasionally.
Mary

Mary is right.

This is a common misconception, that Didelphis virginiana is immune to rabies. It doesn't seem to happen often, but they absolutely can contract it.

Unfortunately the normal defense posture, assuming it doesn't play dead, is gaping mouth, tons of teeth, drooling everywhere, and acting a bit confused.

In other words it's pretty hard to tell if a North American possum is sick.

On the plus side, I've read that they're even better at eating ticks than guineas and muscovies. But that's not much comfort if your horse is dead and your chickens eaten.

 

[Almosta Farm]

I had to seal a couple holes in a catio to get rid of a bunch of possums here.They slept hanging by their tails in the trees beside the chicken coop at night .Waiting on me to forget and leave a door open at night? Probably. Don't say nobody warned you

I don't know what animals you were seeing. Possums don't hang by their tails except in cartoons. They only climb trees to escape predators. And they are nocturnal ... they don't sleep at night. They sleep during the day in nests or burrows on the ground.

 

[Folly's place]

Actually we have had opossums walking around during the day here. Once, unwell, and in our fenced back yard, and shortly 'over the rainbow bridge'.
Twice I've sent uninjured but found dead opossums to the DNR for post mortem exams, and both had multiple abcesses throughout multiple organs, poor things. None were tested for rabies, as other issues were found, and again, a lower risk species.
Either in 2022 or 2023 the CDC identified three rabies positive opossums, one or two rabbits, and a vole!
I find it amazing, who knew? And the odds of individuals of these species even being tested, very small IMO, so probably more are being missed.
Mary

 

[McChooky]

I don't know what animals you were seeing. Possums don't hang by their tails except in cartoons. They only climb trees to escape predators. And they are nocturnal ... they don't sleep at night. They sleep during the day in nests or burrows on the ground.

I never was big on cartoons or watching TV thanks but none of them were moving and there was at least 8-10 of them in the canopy of trees and wild grape Vines growing by the coop.All of them young

 

[McChooky]

I don't know what animals you were seeing. Possums don't hang by their tails except in cartoons. They only climb trees to escape predators. And they are nocturnal ... they don't sleep at night. They sleep during the day in nests or burrows on the ground.

Maybe they were playing possum but my dogs were raising hell so I shined the light up in the trees to see what they were barking at lol