POssums possums possums

[hoodat]

I don't know where they're all coming from but so far I've trapped four possums in my back yard here in San Diego. They have some of my does so spooked they are hiding in their nest boxes. For sure they don't feel safe enough to breed.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Put 'em in a cage for a week, feed them and then have a tasty supper.

....that's what my neighbor did when he was kid. Personally that sounds disgusting, but hey... Lol.

Whatcha been doing with them, anyways? Dog food?

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Gotta fatten them 'possums up with milk and cornbread....

What you are probably catching is a family- that is why you would have an influx of possums. By eliminating this years youngsters now, you have a smaller chance of a possum invasion next year.
Possums do not hibernate, though they will enter a torporous state, and when things warm up, wake up and search for food,(much like skinks and bears do) In more northern areas, possums seldom live through a second winter- they just were not designed for cold---

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Well, I was told it was so that any yucky food they were eating would be out of their system and be safer to eat.. And it probably affected the meat flavor... But still... Predators don't make the best meals.. Guess ill have to try it one day.

 

[Dood]

In more northern areas, possums seldom live through a second winter- they just were not designed for cold

:shock: They seem to be adapting pretty well around here for the last 20 years, of course ours are 10-15 pounders and bigger than your southern raccoons

 

[akane]

We don't see too many around here. Which is good because they carry an illness that can cause major nervous system problems in equines. I think an older mare we had picked that up. I forget what it's called. She was a nice show horse, mainly retired to trail riding at 16, and then suddenly started stumbling and falling to her knees occasionally. We gave her away free to someone that just wanted to let their kids sit on her but apparently she got worse and was fully retired to pasture pet at someone else's place until she died. We also had to do rabies shots one year because a possum fell out of the hay loft in to a feed bin and attacked the head of the horse eating out of it.

At least possums are stupid and easy to trap. That huge 30lb or so mother coon that came up to my waist didn't fit in the traps and would take full size chickens. We did eliminate her offspring, the young males coming around, and the tree they were living in. After that so long as we closed the coops shortly after dark she didn't cause trouble.

 

[KKRabbitry]

We don't see too many around here. Which is good because they carry an illness that can cause major nervous system problems in equines. I think an older mare we had picked that up. I forget what it's called.

Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis, or EPM is what it's called
Around here it's a pretty big problem. That's why pretty much any possum we get a clear shot at ceases to exist.

For someone reason I would have to be pretty hungry to eat a opossum.
Raccoon, squirrel, rabbit......I can handle eating that kind of meat.
For some reason to me possum sounds just plain "gross".

 

[hoodat]

Possums can be predators but actually they're omnivores like us. They eat anything. I've eaten them but they're too greasy for my taste. I usually bait my live traps with fruit so it won't attract cats. At first I caught a lot of cats anyway but the local ones have learned to stay away from the traps. It took twice for some of the dumb ones to learn.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Bears are omnivores too. I still find them revolting. Lol.

 

[skysthelimit]

The dogs make short work out of the possums. Every summer so far I've had the dogs catch them. Last year they got a big female. She was spitting and hissing and refused to leave the barn. I thought she was rabid. Turned out she was protecting her young. It was kind of sad as the dogs caught the possum babies one by one.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Possums can be predators but actually they're omnivores like us. They eat anything. I've eaten them but they're too greasy for my taste. I usually bait my live traps with fruit so it won't attract cats. At first I caught a lot of cats anyway but the local ones have learned to stay away from the traps. It took twice for some of the dumb ones to learn.

Possums are ground based Scavengers-As in 'garbage men'- They don't really do any active hunting unless they have to. They can make decent pets--and there is a national society where a person cannot join unless they have successfully kept a [possum for X number of years-- and that means just ONE possum, not a series pof them

 

[LilacGal]

I can't picture keeping a possum as a pet. But then I say the same for any wild animal. Possums are everywhere down here. Ugly little guys but so long as they leave me be I'll leave them be. They can't get the rabbits because they're in the house and our dogs are of the anti-vermin persuasion.

 

[grumpy]

In more northern areas, possums seldom live through a second winter- they just were not designed for cold---

I don't know where you got your info...but it's incorrect.
Opossum, raccoon, and skunk go into a semi-torpid state
when the weather gets cold. Meaning they "almost" hibernate.
They'll den up, out of the elements and wait. Once the weather
warms, they'll come out and continue with their bothersome ways.

Their life span is 6-10 years under normal conditions.

grumpy.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

grumpy-- I am a Wildlife Rehabber--I know the difference between torpor and hibernation, and I saw the research on tagged possums-- they actually migrated from equatorial regions ( more likely were carried accidently same as the armadillo). Anyway-- yes, they torpor, as do bears. The winters this far north are VERY difficult for them to get through- it is rather hard for them to wade through snow that is deeper than they are tall, and unless they find a nice warm building with a free flowing food supply nearby, the warmer spells do not last long enough for them to replenish used calories. Our resident possum at the rehab center lived 15 years- and getting her through winter was an interesting balancing act- do we put food out today, or not? She was normally too grouchy for us to disturb if we saw signs of overnight activity- but we did not want to put out food and have her leave it- thereby attracting the 'wild' possums and winding up with 'patients' because they found the food, and could not get to it, exposing themselves to the hypothermia potential.

The powers that be- found out the HARD WAY- NEVER wake up a groundhog for Groundhog Day activities-(a true hibernator) it WILL kill them. (Punxatawny Phil has a light and heat regulated burrow, most don't)

Anyway, Virginia was succeeded by Marcy- and it was a planned succession, as Virginia died of Aspergillosis before Marcy's first winter- Poor Virginia had been under the weather all summer- Marcy was chosen from one of the first possum litters from a 'hit by car' possum mom, and was tubed until her mouth formed and she would have crept from the pouch.

 

[LilacGal]

Didelphis Virginiana (opossum, possum, Virginia possum) is slowly making it's way northward into Canada. It's habitat is expanding because human's make it possible for it to overwinter. It does not hibernate but warm building (foundations, barns, sheds, and attics) and trash allow it to over winter safely in northern states and Canada. Most don't live long because just about everything bigger then it will eat it. Also because it's such a slow mover it's commonly road-kill. I think with rare exceptions most captive ones top out at four years of age and in the wild an "old" one is maybe two years of age. It was introduced to the western US/Canada by people likely during the Great Depression. Probably because people in the south eastern US eat it.
Now I am neither a trapper or a wildlife rehabber but I am going to college for a biology degree. Translation = it's an academic understanding of the species.

 

[Dood]

Didelphis Virginiana (opossum, possum, Virginia possum) is slowly making it's way northward into Canada

Ummm it is very well established in Canada They've been here (Hamilton Ontario) for over 20 years and for over 40 in the Windsor area of south western Ontario (my dads home town)

 

[LilacGal]

LOL, I'm talking about on an evolutionary time frame. They are originally from South America. They probably started moving north out of the mid-Atlantic region as soon as Europeans started putting up barns and other outbuildings. Since they're omnivores they feed off of agricultural waste/leftovers, and any form of edible trash. I remember seeing them in PA/NY when I was growing up. But that's different then say the bobcat or the pronghorn who have ranged into southern Canada since the beginning of their respective species. The Lenape Tribe of the Mid-Atlantic are some of the northern most accounts of opossums in Native American folklore.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Now I am neither a trapper or a wildlife rehabber but I am going to college for a biology degree. Translation = it's an academic understanding of the species.

yeee-up. And the possum is the ONLY marsupial in North America. They start their pregnancies with over 30 embryos, and after the transfer to the pouch, are only going to produce, at the most, 13 young ones, cuz that is the number of cotyledons available for nutritional support before they leave the pouch. When a rehabber gets a roadkill with live babies in the pouch,tube feeding is a must, because the mouth is nothing more than a small round hole! Most roadkill babies die because they are poisoned by toxins produced after mothers death. the second highest cause of death in roadkill babies is asphyxiation caused by improper tube feeding!
I Know a lot of rehabbers that insist baby bunnies should be fed in a "sternum down" position-- but then, they have never seen them nurse in real life!!!

 

[LilacGal]

An interesting study was done in Canada a few years ago about urban raccoons and how interaction with humans is causing them to adapt differently then rural raccoons. Apparently we're forcing them to become smarter as they adapt to stealing our trash and entering our buildings. Also they're home ranges are often defined by major roads. I wonder if coyotes will show similar changes when studied.

 

[3mina]

Coyotes are biologically used to being persecuted, humans have taken over the wolves role of hunting them, which is why it's pretty much impossible to eradicate coyotes -wolves have been doing it for millennia and doing it better than we ever could.