Tag Archives: virginia opossum

Springtime in the Woods

Posted on by
9

The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.

~Edwin Way Teale

The trail cameras have been sort of slow lately, mainly capturing the usual suspects of deer, squirrels, and raccoons. They have also seen a few birds including an Ovenbird and a Wood Thrush gathering nesting material. There have been two Coyote captures including a rather rare daytime one (videos best viewed full screen).

-The cameras rarely capture Coyotes during the daytime on our property

But the stars of the trail cameras recently have been the Virginia Opossums. I put a couple of cameras at the base of a large tree that blew down in a storm a couple of years ago because it looked like something was using a hole under the root ball (a favorite type of burrow for an opossum). Indeed, I got some very quick clips of opossums coming and going (at least two different individuals), Raccoons also stopped by occasionally and sniffed around and there is a mouse and a chipmunk going in and out of some of the holes.

Another camera nearby on the now dry creek bed caught something I was hoping for – an opossum with a very large pouch, obviously carrying some babies.

-The large belly means there must be baby opossums in her pouch

I decided to move the camera at the root ball to a better location and after viewing the next two clips, I added one on the giant log on the other side of the root ball. The tree was on a slope and when it fell, it created an angled bridge about 5 feet off the ground at its highest point. These new camera positions paid off.

-This was what I was hoping for – a video clip of a mother opossum carrying a young one on her back

If you watched closely on that clip, you saw another young opossum make a brief appearance at the hole. The next day this happened…

-Two young opossums are trying to kill or are playing with a small animal – I think it is a toad

And a third young opossum makes an appearance above the two that are so engrossed with their find. I’m surprised there was not any additional footage of this encounter, but they may have wandered just out of the field of view of the camera.

After setting up a camera on the log on the other side of the steep root ball, I was rewarded with several clips of an adult opossum and some young opossums walking across. There was also a lot of footage of a very active mouse on the log. And one instance where a young opossum encountered the mouse.

-Great interaction between a mouse and a young opossum

Notice the mouse just comes up behind the opossum and moves on its way. Opossums remain in their mother’s pouch for about two months. They stay with her for another couple of months, often riding on her back. The number of babies (called joeys, by the way) an opossum has varies, but 8-10 in a litter is typical. I’m hoping the camera will capture more images of multiple young ones out and about before they disperse and are on their own.

The Strange Ways of ‘Possums

Posted on by
5

Opossums mating

Virginia Opossums mating (click to enlarge)

I promised a post on this unusual encounter last weekend at Pocosin Lakes so here goes (I should warn you this may be for mature audiences only)…I started my morning with a sighting of a pair of Virginia Opossums (aka ‘possums) mating at the edge of a field just after sunrise. I have been “fortunate” enough to run across mating ‘possums three times in my woods wanderings over the years and each time noticed a behavior that I had once read about and to this day still don’t quite understand – but more about that in a second.

Opossum in tree

Opossum in tree (click to enlarge)

Possums are definitely unusual mammals. Here are a few reasons why:

  • They are North America’s only marsupial (pouched mammal, like Kangaroos)
  • When confronted by a dog or potential predator they often feign death (play ‘possum)
  • Their skull contains the most teeth or any North American land mammal (50)
  • They appear immune to the venom of pit vipers like rattlesnakes and copperheads
  • Opossums, for their size, are one of the shortest-lived animals in the world with few in the wild making it into their second year
  • They have a notoriously tough time crossing roads (related to above?)

But their uniqueness is most noticeable when it comes to their unusual reproductive habits. Female opossums generally raise two litters per year with the breeding season running from January through early summer. Males are known to make a peculiar constant clicking noise as they amble in pursuit of females. Females are only receptive for a short period of time and will hiss, click their teeth and threaten biting if not ready. When at last he does find a receptive female, he bites the fur on her neck and then climbs on her back (you can see wet matted fur on the top of the females’ neck if you look closely at one of these pictures).

Opossums mating

Opossums mating (click to enlarge)

Opossums mating

The right side roll (click to enlarge)

He then grasps her hind legs with his hind feet and then they both roll over on their right sides to copulate (this is the behavior I have witnessed all three times I have seen it – the “right side roll”). Studies have shown (I just love it when this phrase is used…who studied this and why?) that if for some reason the mating pair remains upright or falls over to the left, mating is less likely to be successful. Apparently a researcher in the 1950’s failed to find sperm in the female’s genital tract after the pair remained upright or fell to the left…go figure. Copulation lasts 20-30 minutes.

There are a few other oddities about ‘possum mating that have led to some interesting folklore. Turns out the male ‘possum has a bifurcate (forked) penis. Since early observers could not find a corresponding dual opening in the female they deduced that male ‘possums must mate with a female in her nostrils and she impregnates herself with a sneeze…this is actually part of mountain folklore. But, it turns out that the female has a double set of everything as well. And even though male opossums deliver a low sperm count (~3 million sperm compared to a male rabbit that inseminates a female with ~150 million sperm), the sperm are remarkably efficient. They, too, are paired. That’s right, ‘possum sperm pair up by sort of fusing their “heads” together then beating their tails together, making them far more efficient at reaching their goal. Another go figure.

All of this rather unusual reproductive ability naturally leads to an unusual birth, with baby opossums being born a scant 12-13 days after their parents mate. The bean-sized “embryos” then must crawl from the birth canal to the mother’s pouch, where they will remain for about two months as they develop into something that looks more like a ‘possum baby.

Virginia Opossum

Virginia Opossum (click to enlarge)

So, the next time you see one of those “grinning ‘possums”, think about all the amazing traits that go into making them one of our more endearing woodland critters.

Two wonderful references provided much of the information related here:

THE OPOSSUM: ITS AMAZING STORY

By William J. Krause and Winifred A. Krause

Published by the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri (available online as a pdf)

and…

Advanced ‘Possumology in

Wildwoods Wisdom, Encounters with the Natural World

By Doug Elliott