can geese kill opossums?

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Wow so I know its an odd idea but I cant imagine any other way a opossum ended up dead -in the position and place it I found it-in my backyard. I have high walls in my yard and the only place a big opossum could get down was over in this corner of my yard where my goose and ducks were hanging out the last several evenings. My goose, geraldine, got all crazy a couple nights ago and she is the watch dog for her duck pals... maybe it was because of an intruder...I just saw the poor opossum crammed into a corner of the cement burm where the under house access is and it looks very squashed and trampled and its tail is obviously broken, there were little tufts of hair on the gravel nearby. I checked out my goose and she seems ok, no nicks or bites. She is almost a 2 year old now and weighs around 14 lbs which is average for a Toulouse female.

Has anyone ever had that happen? I didnt think a goose could kill a sizable mammal, hurt yes, but not kill. I think the opossum was after some of their spilled feed and maybe some digging for grubs in my mulch pile...ive never had issues with my flock being harrassed....their yard is nearly impenitrable though.

 

[Kevin565]

I've had my geese chase opossums before but they've never killed them. They have killed small birds before so I wouldn't put it past them.

 

[Going Bhonkers]

it doesn't' seem likely to me, especially since it was a "big" opossum. But then that leaves the question, if it wasnt the goose/ ducks, then who? Perhaps it was already injured?

On a related note, I just wiki'ed opossums because I thought they were predators of geese (prob confusing them with skunks) and read this:
When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. This physiological response is involuntary (like fainting), rather than a conscious act. ...The stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away without reaction.[citation needed] The animal will typically regain consciousness after a period of between 40 minutes and 4 hours, a process which begins with slight twitching of the ears.[16] Eeek!!