10/31/2022 0 Comments Chunky ten thumbs![]() ![]() These are southern animals whose coats are not well insulated and whose hairless ears and tail-tips freeze and crack. Today, opossums live in much of the country east of the Rockies, and they’re also found along the Pacific coast, where they were introduced. They probably reached Wisconsin before statehood, and their populations increased dramatically in the 1900’s. They moved north and west as the settlers cleared the great forests and made roads ( they were undoubtedly less prone to becoming roadkill in the horse and buggy days). They originated in Central America, and by 1492 had established themselves across the southeastern quadrant of the US. No story about opossums would be complete without an account of their remarkable spread throughout North America. Under her belly she hath a bagge wherein she lodgeth, carrieth, and sucketh her young.” What’s in a name? The Algonquins called them “ aposoum,” meaning “ white animal.” That word was corrupted by Captain John Smith, who called them “ opossums.” In 1608, Smith wrote that, “ An Opassum hath a head like a Swine, a taile like a rat and is of the bignes of a Cat. They are increasingly successful urban and suburban dwellers, but their preferred habitats are woodlands and farmlands with water nearby, and they are good swimmers. Remarkably adaptable, generalist omnivores, nomadic, and mainly nocturnal, possums are at home everywhere. Not rodents, they are marsupials, distantly related to kangaroos. Possums/Opossums/Virginia opossums ( Didelphus virginianus) are often referred to as overgrown rats, which is totally off the mark, taxonomically speaking. Today’s BOTW is revised from an article that she wrote for the newsletter of the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog in the spring of 2014. The cat barely looks at the six, chunky squirrels he sees on the feeder by day, but possums and stray cats really get him going. The BugLady turned on an outside light and saw a possum under the bird feeder (which is great, because they clean up the sunflower seed the squirrels spill by day). The other night, the BugLady’s cat started pacing back and forth on the window sills, peering out and yowling. ![]()
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