A Pet's View / May 2006
Opossum Opower
Sarah Stapp and her pet possum, Sophia |
By Pat Lawrence
Opossums try to spend their short, rambling lives as peacefully and unspectacularly as possible.
Misunderstood and unappreciated, opossums are often held responsible for crimes committed by cats, rats and raccoons, and blamed for offenses they could never, would never commit.
Opossums are docile, slow-moving, solitary creatures who avoid confrontation and wander quietly during the night hoping for a nice dinner they can enjoy alone. They eat insects, grubs and slugs.
They also like fruit,but prefer it over ripe and on the ground. They can’t jump, don’t dig and can’t really hang by their tails.
Like miniature sanitation engineers, opossums help maintain the environment by eating discarded food and they are very clean themselves, grooming constantly. Not at all territorial, since they rarely stay in the same place more than a couple days, opossums don’t attack. When threatened, they will growl, hiss and drool. If that fails, they become immobilized by fear, entering an involuntary coma that lasts from forty minutes to four hours. The well known mechanism is a panic response widely recognized as “playing ‘possum”. Because an opossum ‘s fear and survival response is to act sick or dead, people often assume the worst, especially when they see a drooling opossum or one found stiff, with its tongue sticking out. But, there has never been a documented case of rabies in an opossum and if left undisturbed, an opossum that has fainted, will rise and waddle off in perfect health. Though opossums are surrounded by predators, most fatalities are from humans, especially humans in cars.
Few of the gentle creatures survive to adulthood. Their average life span is 1-2 years.
Maligned falsely as scavengers and raiders, opossums do have their champions. The Opossum Society of the United States is dedicated to the understanding, protection and preservation of the Oppossum. The National Opossum Society serves as a nationwide resource for diet, medical, and general knowledge of opossums, educates the public about opossum care and the benefits of the opossum in the environment and works with agencies to improve management and handling of opossums.
Opossums have some special friends, too, like Sarah Stapp in Parkersburg. In 2001, she found a baby possum trying to get across the road. Sarah says, “I thought it was a newborn kitten! It was about 3 inches long and its mother had been killed. I said ‘Mercy, It’s a ‘possum!” So, Sarah named the orphan Mercy and raised her on kitten milk formula. Through research and talking with opossum rehabilitators, she learned more about opossums than she ever dreamed possible, along with what to do-and what not to do-for Mercy.
Photo courtesy of Opossum Society of the US. |
She says, “Opossums are marsupials, related to kangaroos and koala bears. They’re pregnant just thirteen days. The babies are smaller than a honeybee when *their *born and they crawl into the mother’s pouch to develop for thirty or forty days. Opossum fossils have been found from seventy million years ago, so opossums lived during the dinosaur ages. They aren’t at all ferocious but they do have fifty teeth, the most of any mammal, but they’re mostly for show, like their hissing and growling.”
Sarah has since been involved with other opossum rescues. “Often, when the mother is hit by a car, the babies-from two up to fifteen of them- may still be alive in her pouch. There are very specific measures that must be taken for orphan opossums. If someone finds a baby opossum, they should contact someone who is experienced in providing emergency care for orphaned opossums.”
Sarah says, “Once the babies are at least eight ounces and over seven inches long, they begin exhibiting signs of maturity,like being more cautious of people, hiding more, showing their teeth and sometimes growling when approached. In other words, they’re ready to go when they start acting like teenagers!”
The opossums are released back to the wild in secluded areas, usually protected areas like state parks or wild life refuges. Sarah says, “We leave them with enough food to help them through the adjustment period.”
Sometimes an orphaned or injured opossum can’t be returned to the wild. If that’s the case, Sarah says, “We get a permit and they get a license and a lifetime of love as a family pet. It’s the least we can do. Opossums are gentle, surprisingly intelligent creatures who deserve our protection and our respect.”
For more information, contact The Opossum Society of the United States, 714-536-3538, wwwopossumsocietyus.org, or The National Opossum Society, www.opossoum.org. To contact Sarah, call 304-485-6694 or 304-488-5709 or email sstapp@hotmail.com.
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