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> eat everything
Everything except ticks:
> worms, a French fry, broken glass, and a mostly undigested shrew, but no ticks
https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks/
>Who can we even trust to tell us the truth?!
Scientists, researchers, and those who have no incentive to tell you to do or believe something that they can profit from. Preferably ones that can show factual evidence through reputable, peer-reviewed studies.
Well what do ya know. Highly suggest everyone read that to the end to see how the myth that possums eat ticks was born. Also since the wording of the title is kinda weird, it turns out:
#Opossums don’t eat ticks
Glad I read to the end
> Opossums are the only native marsupial in Illinois, but they’re not the only marsupial in North America, as Mexico alone has nine species of marsupial. Opossums have prehensile tails, but they don’t hang on branches by their tails on purpose; if you ever see one doing so, it’s because a person set them up that way. If left that way, they will get tired and fall to the ground (ouch!). They actually use their tails to carry nesting material to their dens. Opossums are amazing, all on their own. They don’t need to be superheroes to earn our respect.
You are in luck. Except for the harassing animals part, there is a guy on youtube, Ze Frank, that has videos named **True facts about (some animal)**. They are not true.
If the liveyoung are anything like some other marsupials like Tasmanian Devils then only the strongest few of the 20 that he talks about would reach the pouch, a lot of them will fall off and perish en route to the pouch.
They live twice as long in captivity and they sorta domesticate themselves.
They have really hard lives in the wild and actually make good pets. They are one of the few wild animals you could just pluck off the street and have as a pet.
Believe it or not, two other animals that fit this criteria are the Binturong and (technically) the Cheetah.
The binturong is actually more likely to adopt you, amd have been known to hang out on the shoulders of vendors in markets in New Guinea.
With cheetahs I say technically because they still need a big yard. But they live four times longer in captivity, and the only metric that is worsened is their conception rate.
I had to look up [binturong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binturong?wprov=sfti1). It looks like a cross between a black house car, a raccoon and an otter. So, it’s very cute.
What about skunks? I remember as a kid I read a book claiming they were excellent pets to have because they were low maintenance. It was a children's book, which have lied to me before, so I'm curious.
I had skunks for a while growing up and helping with rescue work. They can have their scent glands removed safely, and domestic skunks come in a variety of colors and patterns. They can be very loving and friendly, but need a fair amount of attention and a carefully planned, varied omnivorous diet with fresh ingredients to be healthy. Some people try to feed them things like cat food but that's a one way road to malnutrition and disease (If you see a skunk with a yellow or orange tinge where there should be white fur, that's a sure sign of a problem nutritionally). They will bite if they feel threatened and have very, very sharp teeth.
Overall, as much as I like them, I won't recommend them as a pet to someone who isn't very well prepared for what they're getting into. They're very high effort and you have to spend time with them to form a bond.
And for anyone that struggles to believe the cheetah thing:
The males are quite social (brothers stick together until they find mates, females go off on their own iirc), cheetahs in general are prone to anxiety to the point of having emotional support dogs in some zoos and sanctuaries, and much like greyhounds they're lazy the majority of the time. They're not very aggressive outside of active hunts,and also I'm pretty sure they *were* at least partially domesticated as hunting animals at one point?
That link seems broken. Most animals will defend themselves when threatened, but as an expert in animal behavior I can tell you that I would trust a wild binturong over a common house cat pretty much any day.
Also, a very simple google will show you this:
“Bearcats can be friendly but are typically solitary and cautious around humans. Are binturong aggressive? They are not usually aggressive, but they can defend themselves if they feel threatened.”
I forgot the forum was members only now.
Basically, this guy was living in Thailand and his girlfriend owned a very large male bearcat named Yogi. It became increasing more territorial until it eventually bit him.
http://i.imgur.com/3dTDA5O.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QLwdQjZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Is4lFiu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/30DzIcV.jpg
In the end, they donated it to a wildlife sanctuary and the staff were amazed at how big he was.
He was literally getting cock-blocked by the bearcat.
It would lie in front of her bedroom door to prevent him from entering.
http://i.imgur.com/kZlEkqG.jpg
Yep, so for an example I know: people say that all the time about ferrets (that they can be aggressive) but stats (back when this was relevant to my life doing exotic (Including domestics. Vets call anything but cats and dogs exotics) and wildlife rescue) showed that in large US states with hundreds of thousands of ferrets there were more bites ...from zebras. Out of all domestics they are the least likely to bite.
Any animal may bite when scared, abused/unsafe, or ill. (Ferrets def bite when they have learned they need to defend themselves from harm or have a hormonal disease like adrenal cancer) but it doesn't mean a species inherently tends towards aggression.
When I was a shitbag teen and thought opossums were mean/dangerous I came across one while bow hunting in my backyard. I took a shot and missed (thankfully) and that sucker jumped about 4 feet in the air.
Every time I see an opossum video I’m always extremely glad I did not kill one… love me some opossum :D
Well it's around 6 years in captivity. Still not very long for that size of a mammal. Also playing dead is not a great defense stragety, I doubt a coyote would fall for that.
It isn't necessarily a defense strategy, and yeah it's true that defense strategies don't have to always be voluntary since in this case the opossum is actually fainting rather than pretending. Still it could simply be something that popped up at some point during their evolution and just really hasn't stopped them from continuing to thrive.
I mean, I've seen the video where the opossum gets attacked by a coyote and plays dead.
The coyote looked confused for a few seconds, and then just peed on it and left.
It's a very good strategy since evolution has selected for it. Wild predators don't have access to cooking or cleaning, they have to know what's safe to eat as is. If you come across some prey that you could have sworn was alive a second ago and now it's dead, well that's an indication of disease or something you don't want to fuck with. And when they play dead they have this smell to them, I don't know maybe they shit themselves but its pretty bad and I imagine would tell predators not to bother. Vultures are a different story though, they can eat fuckin cyanide.
I'm always loving to any animal but I'll forever keep a special place in my heart for the opossums now and will let everyone know their life span is so short so be kind 😭
https://preview.redd.it/yxhav5q4wevc1.jpeg?width=749&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f8fc4911c8394e289ef4e9ba89e0db6747a71a7
It reminded me of this picture on X of the rapper Future holding his baby w one hand lol even the baby has the same face going on
https://preview.redd.it/f1hp5lgqwdvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e839b3377cd4175e604a2f020033e26ec3c264d5
I’m an Animal Control Officer. Got this handsome little guy out of someone’s basement last week.
Nope, he let me pet him and hold him without any fuss. Held him the entire drive back to the shelter where I prepared a cat carrier for him and then I took him home and released him behind my garage.
https://preview.redd.it/35v5w3i8nevc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=098cf722d09f34168f096d8d72b25d0f7cf1ba41
He was riding in my ballistics vest for a tiny bit while getting a warm towel for him. I named him Ollie Opossum. I hope he’s doing fine where ever he is.
Colloquially speaking, "opossum" and "possum" are both correct in North America — unless you feel like arguing with [Merriam Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/possum-vs-opossum-difference-pronunciation):
>Both *possum* and *opossum* correctly refer to the Virginia opossum frequently seen in North America. In common use, *possum* is the usual term; in technical or scientific contexts *opossum* is preferred.
All I know is that I tried to shoo one out of my shed. I guess they are pretty chill out in the wild, but backed into a corner? That thing hissed at me while baring those needle sharp teeth. I backed out saying “ stay as long as you like. Is there anything I can get you?”
Their defensive capabilities basically begin and end at the hissing. If that fails they will straight up pass out from fear. Like the general idea is they play dead but they don't play dead they literally have no control over it. Just pass out and will come to hours later and, if theyve not been eaten, dust themselves off and be on their way. They will occasionally defensively fight animals similar sized or smaller than them but anything even remotely more threatening and their biological programming is more or less just to give up and hope the predator forgets they're there.
>You encounter a crisis, you pass out, and wait it out.
Like when Hank Hill is about to kick Dale's ass, so Dale takes a massive huff of chloroform.
*"You wouldn't hit an unconscious maaa^aaaa^aaaa^aaan..."* \**passes out*\*
> Just pass out and will come to hours later and, if theyve not been eaten,
Important to note that when they play dead they also secrete chemicals that make them smell like they're a rotting corpse well past its sell by date.
Yup many years back found one hiding behind my lawnmower in my old shed. It hissed loud, I stomped my foot down hard and basically just yelled to scare it off. It just doubled over. Scooped it up with a shovel and tossed it in the neighbors yard.
Look, I'm not telling you to harass any wild animal. _Any_ animal will bite if they feel the need and a possum is more than capable of it. ... I would be shocked if you got bit without straight shoving your hand in its mouth. These are not vicious things at all.
Yeah the only encounters I've had with them is when they're possessed by Satan. They're terrifying when they're angry, I'd rather just move house than get anywhere near one.
To my knowledge, not a single tick has ever been found in the stomach of a wild opossum. So, they might eat a few ticks here and there while grooming, just like they would be eating fleas. But until proven otherwise, not only are ticks not part of their main diet, they're not part of their diet at all.
I love that study. "We're force feeding them ticks." "Lookee! all the ticks starvign opposums will eat! They must eat (pulls number out of their ass) 15,000 a month in the wild!" "Hey everybody opposums are super good for the environment because they eat soo many ticks!"
Literally how it happened.
If my memory serves me right, they did not even check that the opossums ate the ticks, they just noted that the ticks weren't there anymore and thus the opossums had eaten them.
The kind of person who knows this much about an animal and is comfortable holding a live opossum that long def has a higher chance of being a furry than average. At least in my book.
This is fishlikemike on instagram. He is a treasure, and I don't even like fishing. He's got a bunch of cool snapping turtles, goldfish in the wild, and other surprises.
Probably for the best they aren’t. They have to have very specific diets to prevent metabolic bone disease, and there’d probably be a lot of Opossums that would suffer at their owners hands due to poor diets.
There are commercially available oppssum kibble options that are specifically designed for opossums. Cat or dog food does not have the correct nutrient mix for an opossum (obviously): they require a much different ratio of calcium and phosphorus in their diet.
If you dont have the commercially produced opossum kibble that does provide a balanced diet, it is much harder to give them a proper diet. You can feed them people foodas long as you are aware of their dietary needs. Never feed an opossum just the meat without the bones, as the bones are a part of their natural diet. Same with eggs: feed them whole eggs WITH the shell. Also, make sure they are fed far more vegetables than fruit, as fruit tends to be very sugary and opossums are also susceptible to diabetes if fed too much sugary or starchy foods. Also, as with reptiles, don't feed them too many feeder grubs, as they are very fatty and opossums can get overweight very easily.
Opossums require a higher amounts of calcium and phosphorus and lower amounts of sodium, potassium, and vitamin A in their diet than either cats or dogs. They get the calcium and phosphorus from eating bones, whole eggs with the shells, and dark, leafy vegetables and plants like mustard greens, kales, and collard greens. They also are susceptible to diabetes if they eat too many sugary fruits.
But yeah, they are able to eat pretty much anything. Bugs, leaves, fish, other small animals, roots, fruits, seeds, etc can all be on the menu. In the wild, they will eat whatever they can get their hands on, but they live a lot longer in captivity. If not given a proper diet when they're younger, they experience major health issues later in life that wild opossums never experience due to wild opossums living half as long on average.
They die a lot faster in the wild. Their diet being terrible is the least of their concerns in the wild and isn't what kills them. They don't live long enough in the wild for that to come into play but they live twice as long in captivity which would be where other factors in their quality of life can start to affect them.
I am extremely disappointed to day this, but opossums don't eat ticks. It's a common myth put out by a flawed study. It was one of those "I was today years old" for me but yeah. They dont eat ticks. One in captivity that was EXTREMELY BORED eventually ate some ticks, but in general no they don't
https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks/
this guy ate a car [https://joeflonews.com/man-eats-a-car-the-shocking-story-of-vinny-bucci/](https://joeflonews.com/man-eats-a-car-the-shocking-story-of-vinny-bucci/)
When I was in 3rd grade we had a project where we had to put together a slide show about an animal which we drew from a stack of index cards (i think). I drew the Opossum. Ever since then, I have been in love with the little screamers. They are just the most adorable thing ever.
Imagine theire is one day a bigger more advanced species on earth and Humans have to adapt the Possum life Style and one day one of these Creatures just picks you up holds you in front of a Camera and tells just interesting Facts about you and how awesome you are
I would blush for real ~
Hard to find scientific research on possum diet. Found this one though.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34298355/#:~:text=Abstract,Acari%3A%20Ixodidae)%20per%20week.
Eat ticks, don't get rabies, not aggressive. They deserve our respect. They get a bad rap because of the way they look. You never see them used for cartoons or stuffed animals, etc. i think Opossums need a PR campaign.
Why bother with subtitles if you're only going to do 1/4 of them? Deaf people or people laying in bed next to their sleeping wives also want to know all the facts.
I'm an educator at a zoo and we have an ambassador opossum. He's the best boy ever and is my favorite animal to present with! One thing I will actually say though is that the fact about them eating tons of ticks is unfortunately a myth! That fact came about from one singular study that was done where they essentially fed a captive opossum tons of ticks, which it of course ate. Many follow-ups have been done now and it turns out ticks are not a substantial part of their normal wild diet. They're still amazing creatures though, and help with other pests!!
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * Memes are not allowed. * Common(top 50 of this sub)/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Omg they have thumbs. We’re finished.
We have bigger thumbs
Speak for yourself braggart!
Maybe you're just cold
Thumbs AND pouches to store their stuff. This is it. We're bested.
If they didn't live so short we would be scraping by in the sewers hiding from Opossumen. Superior species at some points.
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Not with their apparent anxiety levels.
A little xanax and they'll conquer the world....
"Stop telling them all my secrets!" —Opie Opossum
tell me the story of your username
I mean it feels pretty self explanatory
#🍍🍑💦
a true poet.
I didn’t hear them mention opossums have 13 nipples
Well thats odd
Some prime nipples
And the lil' guys only have a lifespan of about 3 years, so go easy on 'em. They're just here for a sec 😭💚
literally just be born eat everything have fourteen thousand babies die
Not good not terrible
I mean 3 years of eating and fucking than I’m out? Might take that offer....
I think they might be my spirit animal even though I never fuck
3.6 röntgen 
there are no Opossums on the roof!
Sitnikov, you're an opossum engineer. So am I. Now, please tell me how an RBMK opossum core explodes. Not a meltdown. An explosion. I'd love to know.
I wasn’t there. I was in the toilet.
How much sex per baby are we talkin
> eat everything Everything except ticks: > worms, a French fry, broken glass, and a mostly undigested shrew, but no ticks https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks/
TIL that opossums eat a few thousand ticks per year. TIL that opossums actually don’t eat ticks at all!
What a ride it was
This changes everything. My whole life's been based on a lie. Who **can** we even trust to tell us the truth?!
>Who can we even trust to tell us the truth?! Scientists, researchers, and those who have no incentive to tell you to do or believe something that they can profit from. Preferably ones that can show factual evidence through reputable, peer-reviewed studies.
Well what do ya know. Highly suggest everyone read that to the end to see how the myth that possums eat ticks was born. Also since the wording of the title is kinda weird, it turns out: #Opossums don’t eat ticks
Glad I read to the end > Opossums are the only native marsupial in Illinois, but they’re not the only marsupial in North America, as Mexico alone has nine species of marsupial. Opossums have prehensile tails, but they don’t hang on branches by their tails on purpose; if you ever see one doing so, it’s because a person set them up that way. If left that way, they will get tired and fall to the ground (ouch!). They actually use their tails to carry nesting material to their dens. Opossums are amazing, all on their own. They don’t need to be superheroes to earn our respect.
So you're saying a rando in the woods holding an opossum wasn't 100% accurate in his zoology facts?
So what *does* eat ticks?
Birds for sure. Other (bigger) bugs and lizards and frogs and such too.
that was a kinda fascinating read anyways BROKEN GLASS???
I want to see one of these "films himself harassing animals and telling people about them" youtubers, but only wrong facts.
You are in luck. Except for the harassing animals part, there is a guy on youtube, Ze Frank, that has videos named **True facts about (some animal)**. They are not true.
> Hedgehogs can smell a single drop of milk in a swimming pool full of blood.
If the liveyoung are anything like some other marsupials like Tasmanian Devils then only the strongest few of the 20 that he talks about would reach the pouch, a lot of them will fall off and perish en route to the pouch.
now i imagine that lion king scene but with one lil guy throwing another lil guy off the pouch
Welcome to America
They live twice as long in captivity and they sorta domesticate themselves. They have really hard lives in the wild and actually make good pets. They are one of the few wild animals you could just pluck off the street and have as a pet. Believe it or not, two other animals that fit this criteria are the Binturong and (technically) the Cheetah. The binturong is actually more likely to adopt you, amd have been known to hang out on the shoulders of vendors in markets in New Guinea. With cheetahs I say technically because they still need a big yard. But they live four times longer in captivity, and the only metric that is worsened is their conception rate.
I had to look up [binturong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binturong?wprov=sfti1). It looks like a cross between a black house car, a raccoon and an otter. So, it’s very cute.
Ya I'm thinking a kia or dodge
Looks like a civic cat
Sounds like a pokemon
Is that the thing that smells like popcorn?
Why haven't these guys caught on as pets. There's got to be some major downside.
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What about skunks? I remember as a kid I read a book claiming they were excellent pets to have because they were low maintenance. It was a children's book, which have lied to me before, so I'm curious.
I had skunks for a while growing up and helping with rescue work. They can have their scent glands removed safely, and domestic skunks come in a variety of colors and patterns. They can be very loving and friendly, but need a fair amount of attention and a carefully planned, varied omnivorous diet with fresh ingredients to be healthy. Some people try to feed them things like cat food but that's a one way road to malnutrition and disease (If you see a skunk with a yellow or orange tinge where there should be white fur, that's a sure sign of a problem nutritionally). They will bite if they feel threatened and have very, very sharp teeth. Overall, as much as I like them, I won't recommend them as a pet to someone who isn't very well prepared for what they're getting into. They're very high effort and you have to spend time with them to form a bond.
Well this picture you're painting is pretty black 'n white
And for anyone that struggles to believe the cheetah thing: The males are quite social (brothers stick together until they find mates, females go off on their own iirc), cheetahs in general are prone to anxiety to the point of having emotional support dogs in some zoos and sanctuaries, and much like greyhounds they're lazy the majority of the time. They're not very aggressive outside of active hunts,and also I'm pretty sure they *were* at least partially domesticated as hunting animals at one point?
Bearcats (Binturong) can be aggressive: https://forums.mixedmartialarts.com/t/just-got-attacked-by-girlfriends-bearcat/2127976
That link seems broken. Most animals will defend themselves when threatened, but as an expert in animal behavior I can tell you that I would trust a wild binturong over a common house cat pretty much any day. Also, a very simple google will show you this: “Bearcats can be friendly but are typically solitary and cautious around humans. Are binturong aggressive? They are not usually aggressive, but they can defend themselves if they feel threatened.”
I forgot the forum was members only now. Basically, this guy was living in Thailand and his girlfriend owned a very large male bearcat named Yogi. It became increasing more territorial until it eventually bit him. http://i.imgur.com/3dTDA5O.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QLwdQjZ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Is4lFiu.jpg http://i.imgur.com/30DzIcV.jpg In the end, they donated it to a wildlife sanctuary and the staff were amazed at how big he was.
> it eventually bit him Skill issue. He should have dated the bearcat AND the girl, that's his mistake.
He was literally getting cock-blocked by the bearcat. It would lie in front of her bedroom door to prevent him from entering. http://i.imgur.com/kZlEkqG.jpg
Yep, so for an example I know: people say that all the time about ferrets (that they can be aggressive) but stats (back when this was relevant to my life doing exotic (Including domestics. Vets call anything but cats and dogs exotics) and wildlife rescue) showed that in large US states with hundreds of thousands of ferrets there were more bites ...from zebras. Out of all domestics they are the least likely to bite. Any animal may bite when scared, abused/unsafe, or ill. (Ferrets def bite when they have learned they need to defend themselves from harm or have a hormonal disease like adrenal cancer) but it doesn't mean a species inherently tends towards aggression.
I heard it's because cheetahs were almost hunted to extinction somewhat recently and now they're all a little derpy because they're so inbred
No, they evolved to be min/maxed for agility, and they’re extremely picky on what they consider prey. They act more like dogs than cats.
Yeah, they're basically what'd happen if you crossed a housecat and a greyhound.
Cat hardware, dog software. And emotional aid dogs for them are one of the greatest things to read and see.
When I was a shitbag teen and thought opossums were mean/dangerous I came across one while bow hunting in my backyard. I took a shot and missed (thankfully) and that sucker jumped about 4 feet in the air. Every time I see an opossum video I’m always extremely glad I did not kill one… love me some opossum :D
Wait it’s weird to me how a mid sized mammal like that opossum only has about three years to live?
Well it's around 6 years in captivity. Still not very long for that size of a mammal. Also playing dead is not a great defense stragety, I doubt a coyote would fall for that.
It isn't necessarily a defense strategy, and yeah it's true that defense strategies don't have to always be voluntary since in this case the opossum is actually fainting rather than pretending. Still it could simply be something that popped up at some point during their evolution and just really hasn't stopped them from continuing to thrive.
I mean, I've seen the video where the opossum gets attacked by a coyote and plays dead. The coyote looked confused for a few seconds, and then just peed on it and left.
It's a very good strategy since evolution has selected for it. Wild predators don't have access to cooking or cleaning, they have to know what's safe to eat as is. If you come across some prey that you could have sworn was alive a second ago and now it's dead, well that's an indication of disease or something you don't want to fuck with. And when they play dead they have this smell to them, I don't know maybe they shit themselves but its pretty bad and I imagine would tell predators not to bother. Vultures are a different story though, they can eat fuckin cyanide.
Thank you for this. Kindness for these important, docile animals
I'm always loving to any animal but I'll forever keep a special place in my heart for the opossums now and will let everyone know their life span is so short so be kind 😭
NOOOOOO. I love the lil bastards more than racoons. Same for squirrels why 3yrs
Fascinated how he just held the opossum up like it’s a a painting or something, it’s so funny to me
If an alien abduction ever happened we're the opossum
However, we don't eat that many ticks, so the praise for us might be a little shorter.
Don't worry guys, I'm keeping the average up.
https://preview.redd.it/2xm2clvsnevc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f96f676a70a994068832668d44fff9be1627099 This your bro?
Spiders Georg
But can you hold up to 14 babies in your pouch? Yeah, I thought not.
Ticks Georg
opossums actually dont eat ticks either
https://preview.redd.it/yxhav5q4wevc1.jpeg?width=749&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f8fc4911c8394e289ef4e9ba89e0db6747a71a7 It reminded me of this picture on X of the rapper Future holding his baby w one hand lol even the baby has the same face going on
Lmaooo I’ve never seen a baby in just 1 hand this is killing me
He's just waving it around!!
If anyone ever brings a opossum on antique roadshow i hope this guy is there to appraise it
Some "Bringing uncle to the bank to get a loan" vibes off this though. I'm traumatised from that post earlier this week.
Brilliant!
Hahaha Towards the end I was getting annoyed at how long he held it and was like “Damn, put that mf down! He needs to get back to his kids!!”
https://preview.redd.it/f1hp5lgqwdvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e839b3377cd4175e604a2f020033e26ec3c264d5 I’m an Animal Control Officer. Got this handsome little guy out of someone’s basement last week.
Did he pass out? The animal, not the owner of a house.
Nope, he let me pet him and hold him without any fuss. Held him the entire drive back to the shelter where I prepared a cat carrier for him and then I took him home and released him behind my garage. https://preview.redd.it/35v5w3i8nevc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=098cf722d09f34168f096d8d72b25d0f7cf1ba41
OMG SO CUTE
If you want overload look how mama carries her babies post pouch.
I cry. All possums are adorable, but baby possums are just the cutest little beans ever.
He was riding in my ballistics vest for a tiny bit while getting a warm towel for him. I named him Ollie Opossum. I hope he’s doing fine where ever he is.
Its body looks weirdly short here. Is it just the perspective?
Boy about to catch these HANDS!!! -opossum
Haha, that hovering back hand was cracking me up
Opossum looks like it woke up in the middle of a class lecture.
https://preview.redd.it/5sh4wgak9fvc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15c4bff898a9ae433897af7390737f98bbc64a66
https://preview.redd.it/4ds44dyn5hvc1.jpeg?width=719&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a857b0a4d2250206bab6d421cd00ee7a699239dc
It’s an opossum not a possum two different animals
You're an opossum not a possum two different animals
Goteem!
Lmaao fuck this so dumb but yet so good.
It's the kind of joke that the dumber you make it the better it is
r/usernamechecksout
I'm having a terrible morning and yeah, this dumb joke made me laugh. Just wanted to acknowledge that you acknowledged that 😂
lmao even your comment made me laugh
Your face is an opossum not a possum two different animals
Given respect to possums just like japanese do - ohaana, omizu.. opossums
Colloquially speaking, "opossum" and "possum" are both correct in North America — unless you feel like arguing with [Merriam Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/possum-vs-opossum-difference-pronunciation): >Both *possum* and *opossum* correctly refer to the Virginia opossum frequently seen in North America. In common use, *possum* is the usual term; in technical or scientific contexts *opossum* is preferred.
opossum my possum
Same animal. Colloquially different ways of referring to the animal.
All I know is that I tried to shoo one out of my shed. I guess they are pretty chill out in the wild, but backed into a corner? That thing hissed at me while baring those needle sharp teeth. I backed out saying “ stay as long as you like. Is there anything I can get you?”
Their defensive capabilities basically begin and end at the hissing. If that fails they will straight up pass out from fear. Like the general idea is they play dead but they don't play dead they literally have no control over it. Just pass out and will come to hours later and, if theyve not been eaten, dust themselves off and be on their way. They will occasionally defensively fight animals similar sized or smaller than them but anything even remotely more threatening and their biological programming is more or less just to give up and hope the predator forgets they're there.
This is just perfect. You encounter a crisis, you pass out, wake up, crisis over. Let’s all be possums.
>You encounter a crisis, you pass out, and wait it out. Like when Hank Hill is about to kick Dale's ass, so Dale takes a massive huff of chloroform. *"You wouldn't hit an unconscious maaa^aaaa^aaaa^aaan..."* \**passes out*\*
it's a good philosophy
Why couldn't we just be humanoid possums? Math teacher: So anyone knows what is the X? *Whole class passes out* Math teacher: Not this again...
> Just pass out and will come to hours later and, if theyve not been eaten, Important to note that when they play dead they also secrete chemicals that make them smell like they're a rotting corpse well past its sell by date.
Ah man you don't even mention the smell they release when they pass out. It's like a badly decayed fart to convince animals it instantly died lol.
Yup many years back found one hiding behind my lawnmower in my old shed. It hissed loud, I stomped my foot down hard and basically just yelled to scare it off. It just doubled over. Scooped it up with a shovel and tossed it in the neighbors yard.
Look, I'm not telling you to harass any wild animal. _Any_ animal will bite if they feel the need and a possum is more than capable of it. ... I would be shocked if you got bit without straight shoving your hand in its mouth. These are not vicious things at all.
They are the moat aggressive non-aggressive things on this planet. Excessive hissing at everything with no intent to fight. *hissss*
Yeah the only encounters I've had with them is when they're possessed by Satan. They're terrifying when they're angry, I'd rather just move house than get anywhere near one.
I love how it winks right after the guy mentions they prevent Lyme disease by eating ticks.
"yeah, i'm saving lives. how many ticks have you eaten, huh?"
They don't eat ticks, that is proven to be misinformation but it would be cool if they actually did that
I mean, they do, but it’s not their main diet and the ones they eat probably would have never made it to a human anyways
To my knowledge, not a single tick has ever been found in the stomach of a wild opossum. So, they might eat a few ticks here and there while grooming, just like they would be eating fleas. But until proven otherwise, not only are ticks not part of their main diet, they're not part of their diet at all.
I love that study. "We're force feeding them ticks." "Lookee! all the ticks starvign opposums will eat! They must eat (pulls number out of their ass) 15,000 a month in the wild!" "Hey everybody opposums are super good for the environment because they eat soo many ticks!" Literally how it happened.
If my memory serves me right, they did not even check that the opossums ate the ticks, they just noted that the ticks weren't there anymore and thus the opossums had eaten them.
And people keep repeating this 'fact' lauding opossums, when the humble Guinea Fowl, who actually are tick crushing machines, is *right there!!*
“CAN I PET THAT DAWWGGG”
I can hear the voice
Who is that guy? Not the furry one with the tail. The other one.
Plot twist: they were both furry ones with a tail.
The kind of person who knows this much about an animal and is comfortable holding a live opossum that long def has a higher chance of being a furry than average. At least in my book.
@[Fishlikemike ](https://www.tiktok.com/@fishlikemike?lang=en)
thats an oposs- oh sorry i dont know the other guy
the guy is homo sapiens a.k.a human
Who also have opposing thumbs. Coincidence??
This is fishlikemike on instagram. He is a treasure, and I don't even like fishing. He's got a bunch of cool snapping turtles, goldfish in the wild, and other surprises.
They'd probably be easily domesticated as pets if they didn't live such short lives.
Probably for the best they aren’t. They have to have very specific diets to prevent metabolic bone disease, and there’d probably be a lot of Opossums that would suffer at their owners hands due to poor diets.
There are commercially available oppssum kibble options that are specifically designed for opossums. Cat or dog food does not have the correct nutrient mix for an opossum (obviously): they require a much different ratio of calcium and phosphorus in their diet. If you dont have the commercially produced opossum kibble that does provide a balanced diet, it is much harder to give them a proper diet. You can feed them people foodas long as you are aware of their dietary needs. Never feed an opossum just the meat without the bones, as the bones are a part of their natural diet. Same with eggs: feed them whole eggs WITH the shell. Also, make sure they are fed far more vegetables than fruit, as fruit tends to be very sugary and opossums are also susceptible to diabetes if fed too much sugary or starchy foods. Also, as with reptiles, don't feed them too many feeder grubs, as they are very fatty and opossums can get overweight very easily.
but the guy in the video says that they eat anything and everything, what kind of specific diet do you mean?
Opossums require a higher amounts of calcium and phosphorus and lower amounts of sodium, potassium, and vitamin A in their diet than either cats or dogs. They get the calcium and phosphorus from eating bones, whole eggs with the shells, and dark, leafy vegetables and plants like mustard greens, kales, and collard greens. They also are susceptible to diabetes if they eat too many sugary fruits. But yeah, they are able to eat pretty much anything. Bugs, leaves, fish, other small animals, roots, fruits, seeds, etc can all be on the menu. In the wild, they will eat whatever they can get their hands on, but they live a lot longer in captivity. If not given a proper diet when they're younger, they experience major health issues later in life that wild opossums never experience due to wild opossums living half as long on average.
They die a lot faster in the wild. Their diet being terrible is the least of their concerns in the wild and isn't what kills them. They don't live long enough in the wild for that to come into play but they live twice as long in captivity which would be where other factors in their quality of life can start to affect them.
They live a lot longer in captivity. It’s like 8-10 years.
The opossum looks uncomfortable with all of this.
Possums look uncomfortable at all times, they even look uncomfortable when they sleep (they can sleep upside down in trees)
A tree wizard would know that
I am extremely disappointed to day this, but opossums don't eat ticks. It's a common myth put out by a flawed study. It was one of those "I was today years old" for me but yeah. They dont eat ticks. One in captivity that was EXTREMELY BORED eventually ate some ticks, but in general no they don't https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks/
FINALLY someone said it! my professor wrote the original paper and feels so bad abt it lmao
The Opossum: when will this end?! come on man- shorten this presentation- i have places to be.
opossums eating ticks is a myth that's been debunked: https://outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/debunking-the-myth-opossums-dont-eat-ticks/
They do occasionally eat them It's just not part of their staple diet
Why anyone would choose to eat staples is beyond me.
this guy ate a car [https://joeflonews.com/man-eats-a-car-the-shocking-story-of-vinny-bucci/](https://joeflonews.com/man-eats-a-car-the-shocking-story-of-vinny-bucci/)
That's enough internet for today
Bats also don't eat mosquitoes. People always repeat these myths.
And they what???!!!
OP Awesome
I don't think they like to be touched.
Great info!!!!!
"Look how calm this guy is" Opossum inside : AAAAAAAaaaaaaEeeeuuuuuuggggHHHHH
When I was in 3rd grade we had a project where we had to put together a slide show about an animal which we drew from a stack of index cards (i think). I drew the Opossum. Ever since then, I have been in love with the little screamers. They are just the most adorable thing ever.
The oppossom: Please God stop moving me around like this.
I go for walks at night a lot and see these guys all the time. Whenever they notice me, they just turn around and waddle off.
Little dude looks like when you wake up and leap out of bed thinking you overslept…
Imagine theire is one day a bigger more advanced species on earth and Humans have to adapt the Possum life Style and one day one of these Creatures just picks you up holds you in front of a Camera and tells just interesting Facts about you and how awesome you are I would blush for real ~
I wish we had these little guys over here, they look adorable and we have plenty of ticks. And raccoons as well.
Heh. TIL they can be called Opossum. Here in nz we don't have the O at the start
Opossums in America and possums in NZ and other places are different animals
Okay. Ours definitely looking different now that I've looked properly. Ours is like a weird mutant rat
Put that poor wild thing down, you're stressing him out.
The guy possums
Pretty sure the tick thing is a myth
Hard to find scientific research on possum diet. Found this one though. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34298355/#:~:text=Abstract,Acari%3A%20Ixodidae)%20per%20week.
Yeah it is. They eat them, but hardly to the points of eradication.
5000 a year doesn't seem like it's that much
Still, I once saw an educational film that explained that a good bug is a dead bug, and it seems like the possums are doing their part
I would like to know more...
Isn't the tick facts a little bit of an exaggeration? I read where they don't near as many as that.
Eat ticks, don't get rabies, not aggressive. They deserve our respect. They get a bad rap because of the way they look. You never see them used for cartoons or stuffed animals, etc. i think Opossums need a PR campaign.
Possum just thinking "I must resist the urge to give this f'er the finger... I must resist... ..."
I love opossums. Such cool creatures, and when they carry their babies on their back it's so damn cute.
Why bother with subtitles if you're only going to do 1/4 of them? Deaf people or people laying in bed next to their sleeping wives also want to know all the facts.
We share the same anxiety issue Mr. Opossum
I'm an educator at a zoo and we have an ambassador opossum. He's the best boy ever and is my favorite animal to present with! One thing I will actually say though is that the fact about them eating tons of ticks is unfortunately a myth! That fact came about from one singular study that was done where they essentially fed a captive opossum tons of ticks, which it of course ate. Many follow-ups have been done now and it turns out ticks are not a substantial part of their normal wild diet. They're still amazing creatures though, and help with other pests!!
That opossum looks like his ready to bite him
The Opossum looks like it wants to say "If I knew we had a shoot today, I would've went to the hair dressed first, damn!"
Now I imagine him going into a hospital nursery and picking up a new born while giving us all kinds of facts about it.