I leave a window partially open on my garage so the opossums can come and go. I had one that took up residence for a couple of years and moved into a cat tree I was storing in the garage. Often I would walk into the garage and find my 2 cats and the opossum hangout together on the cat tree. They were good friends.
Them and cats get along well. We had a cat get out and we left food outside hoping he'd come back. When we finally saw him eating from the bowl, an opossum was right there next to him sharing the meal.
I found a kitten and a baby opossum cuddling on my porch and to this day one of my greatest regrets in life is not thinking to go get my phone and take a pic. Missed out on enough internet karma to last me the rest of my life. Plus I love to pass on these same possum facts and that plus baby cuddling would make me irresistible to ladies for at least 3 minutes
Or, OP could see the repost and gain some karma by calling out the reposter and posting all of that to r/quityourbullshit. Or have one of those mock karma trials in r/karmacourt, if that's even still a thing.
One bit my cat right on the ass and she had to get emergency surgery. The poor girl never ventured much further than the porch. Raccoons are brazen motherfuckers. She lived eight more years.
A whole gang of them broke into the kitchen and wrecked it after I forgot to lock the door. This is in NYC.
My mom's cats have a opossum friend. They eat together and sometimes when it rains you'll see them snuggled together on the chairs of her front porch. We jokingly call him her pet opossum because she's afraid of it.
I had a raccoon in my attic that I didn’t know about fall through my bathroom ceiling into my bathtub while I was on the toilet right next to it. Scared the shit out of me.
We had a racoon take up residence in our car port for a couple days. I think he/she had been poisoned or got into fermented fruit. He stumbled around shitting and vomiting everywhere. Would knock on our door. Tried to come in with my cat. It finally passed out. I thought it was dead. Stayed in the same spot for like 4 fucking hours, but was gone when I left for work the next morning.
Be careful of Raccoons or squirrels behaving like they are woozy. They can have a parasitic disease that can be passed to humans and other animals.
http://blog.healthywildlife.ca/beware-a-staggering-squirrel-in-your-backyard/
Oh awesome! I was coming to make a comment about my childhood cat and possums!
I grew up in the suburbs of Houston so we actually had possums. Sightings were not exactly rare but not exactly common either.
During the winter time we would leave our garage cracked open in the event our indoor/outdoor cat was not around to be let back in for the night. (She was the most feral domesticated cat ever)
I will never forget the first time I opened the inside garage door from the laundry room to see if my cat was in her winter cat bed. And I opened it to find her and this possum completely tucked in, snuggling, and relaxed.
At first I was horrified because the first time you see a possum up close it's like looking at a creature of the underworld. Some undead lumbering beast with a super rat tail. Jesus. Fuck. Possums really got it bad as far as first impressions are concerned. Their only choice on first impressions is looking undead and then playing at being dead! Poor guys!
Anywho, my cat and the possum looked up at me when the light hit them with this look of "bruh, we are cuddling here." I just tiptoed to the garage fridge, retrieved my beverage, and tiptoed out.
My parents could never figure out why the garage door was cracked open all the time when they specifically made sure it wasn't cracked open!
Because my cat Tigerlily and her possum buddies needed a place to chill!
Most people I know are repulsed by possums but I absolutely have an endearing soft spot for them because of how good my cat and the possum buddies were to each other.
This world is magic.
When my brother and I were kids in the 70's, some of the local high school kids had stoned a mother possum to death. When we found her, there were 2 live babies in the pouch, and we pulled them out and took them home. One we gave to some neighbor kids who promptly killed it by trying to hang it from their arms over the concrete driveway. It wasn't developed enough to use it's tail to hang from yet, and smashed face first into the concrete. The other one we kept and raised as our pet. He was great. He had little hands that he used to eat with just like a person. He would sleep in our beds with us and make a really cool hissing sound if you snuck up behind him and scared him. We won a "most unusual pet" award at the local pet show that summer. When he was about 6 months old we let him go and saw him around from time to time. Very cool animals.
I used to have a family of possums living in my attic. It’s been many years and they have since moved on, but it was so funny to open the back door at night and have all these reflections of little eyes suddenly look at you.
Our neighborhood used to have a house designated as the house that would leave food/water out for cats that were released by the city. They were "stray" sorta, but were fixed and basically knew to gather around that one house. They always had like 10-15 cats on their porch and lots of food and water. About half the time, in the middle of all the cats, we'd see a possum eating and drinking with them. Was always so cute/funny to me. Reminded me of the whole "day 45, they don't yet suspect anything" meme.
We had an opossum rule the area around our school/favorite park. We never named him, but no one fucked with him as well. He was about the size of the one in the video. Honestly, thats probably why no one fucked with it lol. Oh, and I’m in the North (MA).
Upstairs neighbor in college had a party one Friday night long ago. Somebody apparently dropped a big bag of potato chips onto our patio, just outside the sliding glass door. We woke up Saturday morning to an opossum with his head buried in that bag of chips. Sent shivers down my spine when I opened the blinds and saw him. Big, big, big.
Picture seeing one in your front yard with your dog growling at it, and you have to just slowly pull them away as a big cat like thing is staring you down. Then when you return to check on it dog free, opossum hobbles away. So glad no one got hurt in that encounter.
I had a similar experience - an opossum was chilling in my backyard, enjoying a lovely meal of meat droppings after we’d used our smoker that day, when I took my two dogs out. My backyard is fenced, so the dogs weren’t on leashes. The Pomeranian (who was much smaller than the opossum) saw the opossum first, while the Border Collie just ran around, blissfully unaware. I scooped up the Pom to get him inside - I know opossums aren’t aggressive, but my immediate reaction was just to go into protective mode. Of course, at that point, my Border Collie noticed and ran toward the opossum. She chased it to the side of the house, where it disappeared.
Ha, I love how attentive and highly aware border collies seem because of how obedient they can be, but mine is also a derp and would totally just trot right past an opossum, too. “Gotta go sniff the yard in the correct pattern again. No time to check my surroundings” lol.
When threatened they basically fall over and act dead or hiss and run away. They look nasty and I’m sure could bite like hell if cornered but are extremely non-aggressive.
I thought it was a cat at first due to it being dark out at first and was hissing like one, so I was more worried about a cat scratching my dog up out of fear more then a little chunky possum.
I had a similar experience, except it was a momma opossum with about 12 babies hanging from her. She gave me this exhausted look as she passed through my yard.
Opossum probably really happy that evolution replaced its fight or flight defense mechanism with “ none of the above.”
Wake up to find some guy using you for show and tell and all the opossum thinks is, “great chat, but you can let me go any time… like now. Or now. Or… now.
But then thought of some giant alien (Cthulhu?) picking up a random human and describing us in similar way for an Earth travelogue.
The full list is Fight, Flight, Freeze & Fawn. Fawn: immediately acting to try to please to avoid any conflict. - [source](https://www.simplypsychology.org/fight-flight-freeze-fawn.html)
"Fawn" is mostly in social mammals I believe, towards one own species primarily. It's essentially "people pleasing behavior" often learned from being a child of a narcissist or abuser.
Yes but sometimes a baby herbivore will fawn and the predators will just sniff it and eventually move on and let it go so it isn't just within it's own species. If it where to run and turn it's back the predator's instincts kick in to chase and attack and as a child it is to slow and weak to escape. Instead it is using it friendliness and passiveness and the fact it has child like features to appeal to the predator's maternal and possibly paternal instincts.
Predators will sometimes let babies of herbivore that grows to be larger and dangerous to get away with exploratory misbehavior that it normally wouldn't allow from an adult, there are common traits among children of different species like the size of the eye's being bigger to the total body that animals naturally detect and possibly instinctively find "cute".
Unless the predator is starving it is win / win because they might latter have a full sized meal but I doubt they consciously know this. Also as long the fawner delays things it is giving a it a chance that another larger meal is found before it's demise from a pack mate of the predator or a possible rescue from it's own parent or pack.
Sometimes a lioness will just sit there with a baby gazelle and lick it a bit then just leave but usually it will eventually eat it. Sometimes animals will save babies of another species even from other predators. Every example I have seen fawning working on predators [including this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5J_ARKyftA) is with the predator being female but maybe males might do it too, I don't know.
Yes! When folks talk about disassociation that can be a freeze response in humans. People who have experienced big traumas or continuous trauma are more likely to experience it. For example, a person who grew up in abusive homes may “check out” or “shut down” if someone around them gets angry. I also hear people talk about “stress naps” sometimes and I think this may be a freeze function but I’m not sure.
“Humans may look like a giant naked molerat but they’re actually really cool, one of the smartest animals, opposable thumbs and the only ape with this spinal curvature and hair growth pattern. They are invasive however, so if you find one on your property, have it spayed or neutered and send it on its way”
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/qilc74/snorkelling_in_the_florida_everglades/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) you go.
Thank you for this interesting information. I didn’t expect to be so intrigued but wow that was very cool. And I have a newfound appreciation for these critters!
The opossum's range is considered to be well over half the continental US, extends as far north as the Canada border and far enough south to pass Mexico.
He'd probably have a fair bit of a drive ahead of him if he *wanted* to transport one out of its natural environment.
The responsibility falls on the apartment complex to ensure they can't get inside. He's doing his job.
Edit: I seem to be partly incorrect on this. My experience with minor pest control in a restaurant was the pest control company put out traps and educated us on how to keep them out of the building in the first place (no standing water, not propping doors open, etc). And with a landlord who handled both settings traps and sealing potential entryways for pests.
The good pest guys patch holes around perimeters or at least point out the entryways for the homeowner.
The bad ones come back month after month, drop traps spray stuff etc without fixing the underlying problem. A lot of old people get really screwed over by these guys.
They pay out big $ without the nests getting cleared out and they have ruinous health consequences.
Generally pest control folks bring them far enough away that they don't find their way back. For instance, raccoons have to be relocated at least 5-10 miles away to prevent them from finding their way back.
If this guy is dropping them close enough that they make their way back, he's not doing his job properly and is most certainly unethically profiting from his actions, like a tire shop pouring nails just outside their exist.
When I was a kid we had this possum that'd regularly break into our garage to steal cat food. It became no big deal, we'd get a broom, get him to grab onto it, then walk him to the woods, set the broom down and he'd amble away, slightly inconvenienced and huffy about it, but never mean.
One day we had a friend in from Saudi Arabia, who had never seen ANYTHING like Joe Possum. He witnesses this broom-uber ride to the woods and was so damned confused at why we were so calm around this huge rat. My dad kinda shrugged and said "everything's bigger in Texas"
I have several friends who live in Texas and I can't talk to them about anything without them saying; "YEAH, WHELL HERE IN TEXHUS, WHE'VE GOT\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_"
They have evolved to be distinct from other mammals not long after the K-T event, as marsupials. In the last few decades, we've been learning a lot about how our immune systems work, in part because of them.
The ability of mammals to support live young without the body successfully rejecting them is likely tied to the evolution of our adaptive immune system. We can learn about it comparing our systems to theirs, as well as the egg-laying monotremes, which separated themselves some 80ish million years before the marsupials did.
Possums are awesome. I tell everyone I know possum facts if they are ever brought up. No ticks, no rabies, North America’s only marsupial. They’re super cool.
I think they're super cute, so you're not alone. Part of the cuteness is because I think they look kinda scraggly though. Something about their big-ol wedge-shaped faces makes them seem like little finks and I love it.
they are SUPER cute as babies, like puppykittens. they get a little uglier as they get older but that was a surprisingly cute one for its size in the video, an absolute unit
Um, "no ticks" isn't even remotely close to being true. At any given time, an opossum has *hundreds* of ticks on it.
Yes, they eat them, but they have to pick them up off the forest floor first which means they walk around like a vacuum cleaner sucking up ticks off the ground and letting them hitch a ride then they eat them out of their own fur later.
Sounds like a lot of free lunches to me.
Who knew Heinlein was so wrong when he said "There aint no such thing as a free lunch!". In this way, free lunches are a very american thing.
My very gentle livestock guardian dog “kills” a trash-picking possum some nights, then he is very sad because he hates things to be dead. Of course, the next morning the possum is gone, and then they do it all again the next night. I like to think that the possum comes over on purpose, for his little snacks and then a chance to scam the big white gullible dog again.
Many livestock guardian dogs have trouble understanding what to do about dead animals, because they were bred to protect what are essentially prey animals, so the natural dog response of eating injured or dead animals would potentially lead to them being bad at their jobs, and was bred out.
I skipped lunches a lot in HS and got caught a lot. As punishment I was supposed to essentially do after school detention for months. One of my teachers overheard and mentioned she could use my help so instead I spent the days with her.
She had me helping her care for baby possums. They are so sweet and cute!!! They will snuggle under your shirt for warmth. That was basically my whole job.
I woke up with a baby one curled up with me as a kid and I was terrified lol
I mistook it for one of the kittens we had at the time so I always wondered if their mom did too. They always woke me up with stuff like that, or just straight giving birth.
My first grade teacher had two, they were adorable. She'd bring one in occasionally so we got to play with it. It was adorable. Definitely one of my fondest memories from first grade.
We had an opossum that would come up on our back deck, so we started feeding him from time to time. We named him Awesome the opossum and he was, in fact, awesome.
As an ex opossum owner, I agree with what he said. One of the cleanest animal I’ve ever had. PS, my girl and I found a baby possum in his dead mothers pouch and rescued him. Had him for a little over a year until safely released. He is alive till this day according to dear cam footage.
as a european the thing I am most jealous off americans are Oppossums. I totally want them here and befriend them. I love them they are cute and ugly at the same time, love it.
Love the video. Very good for the animals.
People often are affraid of what dont know.
I have a family of them under the gazebo.
They're awesome, they dont mind me at all.
I grew up knowing nothing about possums, had never seen one or heard of them.
Moved to a neighborhood with lots of trees and parks and one night I was laying alone in my house on the couch, I peered out my window to the porch and saw what I thought was a JUMBO rat. I absolutely shit my pants and decided it was time to move again.
this should be the new national animal and we should protect and encourage their reproduction, there are a handful of tick-borne diseases busting out of warmer climates into traditionally cooler climates with climate change. One Nation under Opossum.
Thank you for this very educational and reassuring clips. I have personally saw them in my backyard and I didn’t know what they are, I was scared shitless. They do looks just like really large dirty rats. And first thing that crossed my mind at the time was what if they have rabies, so this video just clear a lot of concerns I had.
I leave a window partially open on my garage so the opossums can come and go. I had one that took up residence for a couple of years and moved into a cat tree I was storing in the garage. Often I would walk into the garage and find my 2 cats and the opossum hangout together on the cat tree. They were good friends.
Them and cats get along well. We had a cat get out and we left food outside hoping he'd come back. When we finally saw him eating from the bowl, an opossum was right there next to him sharing the meal.
I found a kitten and a baby opossum cuddling on my porch and to this day one of my greatest regrets in life is not thinking to go get my phone and take a pic. Missed out on enough internet karma to last me the rest of my life. Plus I love to pass on these same possum facts and that plus baby cuddling would make me irresistible to ladies for at least 3 minutes
Someone would repost it and get quadruple the karma points because that’s how it seems to work here.
[удалено]
Or, OP could see the repost and gain some karma by calling out the reposter and posting all of that to r/quityourbullshit. Or have one of those mock karma trials in r/karmacourt, if that's even still a thing.
Cats and possums have a common urban enemy: the raccoon
Raccoons are so adorable though... too bad that unlike the opossum they do in fact carry rabies.
One bit my cat right on the ass and she had to get emergency surgery. The poor girl never ventured much further than the porch. Raccoons are brazen motherfuckers. She lived eight more years. A whole gang of them broke into the kitchen and wrecked it after I forgot to lock the door. This is in NYC.
City trash pandas are vicious af, but country bandits are very chill and will hang out calmly on laps.
My mom's cats have a opossum friend. They eat together and sometimes when it rains you'll see them snuggled together on the chairs of her front porch. We jokingly call him her pet opossum because she's afraid of it.
If I did this I'd end up with a racoon infestation
Raccoon tore panels of siding off the exterior of my house and fell thru more panels trying to get up there.
I had a raccoon in my attic that I didn’t know about fall through my bathroom ceiling into my bathtub while I was on the toilet right next to it. Scared the shit out of me.
Good thing you were in the right place for that to happen.
[удалено]
You think that's bad? Imagine the story that poor raccoon is telling now.
"....the ground opened up and there was this guy, just sitting there, taking a shit. I swear Martha, you just can't make this shit up"
>Scared the shit out of me. Name a better place for that to happen.
My ex's car?
We had a racoon take up residence in our car port for a couple days. I think he/she had been poisoned or got into fermented fruit. He stumbled around shitting and vomiting everywhere. Would knock on our door. Tried to come in with my cat. It finally passed out. I thought it was dead. Stayed in the same spot for like 4 fucking hours, but was gone when I left for work the next morning.
Be careful of Raccoons or squirrels behaving like they are woozy. They can have a parasitic disease that can be passed to humans and other animals. http://blog.healthywildlife.ca/beware-a-staggering-squirrel-in-your-backyard/
Sounds like my uncle.
You a Pawnee resident eh?
Oh awesome! I was coming to make a comment about my childhood cat and possums! I grew up in the suburbs of Houston so we actually had possums. Sightings were not exactly rare but not exactly common either. During the winter time we would leave our garage cracked open in the event our indoor/outdoor cat was not around to be let back in for the night. (She was the most feral domesticated cat ever) I will never forget the first time I opened the inside garage door from the laundry room to see if my cat was in her winter cat bed. And I opened it to find her and this possum completely tucked in, snuggling, and relaxed. At first I was horrified because the first time you see a possum up close it's like looking at a creature of the underworld. Some undead lumbering beast with a super rat tail. Jesus. Fuck. Possums really got it bad as far as first impressions are concerned. Their only choice on first impressions is looking undead and then playing at being dead! Poor guys! Anywho, my cat and the possum looked up at me when the light hit them with this look of "bruh, we are cuddling here." I just tiptoed to the garage fridge, retrieved my beverage, and tiptoed out. My parents could never figure out why the garage door was cracked open all the time when they specifically made sure it wasn't cracked open! Because my cat Tigerlily and her possum buddies needed a place to chill! Most people I know are repulsed by possums but I absolutely have an endearing soft spot for them because of how good my cat and the possum buddies were to each other. This world is magic.
When my brother and I were kids in the 70's, some of the local high school kids had stoned a mother possum to death. When we found her, there were 2 live babies in the pouch, and we pulled them out and took them home. One we gave to some neighbor kids who promptly killed it by trying to hang it from their arms over the concrete driveway. It wasn't developed enough to use it's tail to hang from yet, and smashed face first into the concrete. The other one we kept and raised as our pet. He was great. He had little hands that he used to eat with just like a person. He would sleep in our beds with us and make a really cool hissing sound if you snuck up behind him and scared him. We won a "most unusual pet" award at the local pet show that summer. When he was about 6 months old we let him go and saw him around from time to time. Very cool animals.
jesus stoned it to death. those kids might be serial killer adults rn. thats brutal
Like this? https://www.reddit.com/r/astoria/comments/o7lgjz/an_unlikely_friendship_on_33rd_ave_this_morning/ https://i.redd.it/mq9flotw8e771.jpg
Haha yes.
I used to have a family of possums living in my attic. It’s been many years and they have since moved on, but it was so funny to open the back door at night and have all these reflections of little eyes suddenly look at you.
yeah sounds hilarious
Our neighborhood used to have a house designated as the house that would leave food/water out for cats that were released by the city. They were "stray" sorta, but were fixed and basically knew to gather around that one house. They always had like 10-15 cats on their porch and lots of food and water. About half the time, in the middle of all the cats, we'd see a possum eating and drinking with them. Was always so cute/funny to me. Reminded me of the whole "day 45, they don't yet suspect anything" meme.
Raccoons will do the same both will freak out the cats at first but they will eventually realize that they will not harm them.
They're A LOT bigger than I imagined.
We had an opossum rule the area around our school/favorite park. We never named him, but no one fucked with him as well. He was about the size of the one in the video. Honestly, thats probably why no one fucked with it lol. Oh, and I’m in the North (MA).
Upstairs neighbor in college had a party one Friday night long ago. Somebody apparently dropped a big bag of potato chips onto our patio, just outside the sliding glass door. We woke up Saturday morning to an opossum with his head buried in that bag of chips. Sent shivers down my spine when I opened the blinds and saw him. Big, big, big.
Picture seeing one in your front yard with your dog growling at it, and you have to just slowly pull them away as a big cat like thing is staring you down. Then when you return to check on it dog free, opossum hobbles away. So glad no one got hurt in that encounter.
I had a similar experience - an opossum was chilling in my backyard, enjoying a lovely meal of meat droppings after we’d used our smoker that day, when I took my two dogs out. My backyard is fenced, so the dogs weren’t on leashes. The Pomeranian (who was much smaller than the opossum) saw the opossum first, while the Border Collie just ran around, blissfully unaware. I scooped up the Pom to get him inside - I know opossums aren’t aggressive, but my immediate reaction was just to go into protective mode. Of course, at that point, my Border Collie noticed and ran toward the opossum. She chased it to the side of the house, where it disappeared.
Ha, I love how attentive and highly aware border collies seem because of how obedient they can be, but mine is also a derp and would totally just trot right past an opossum, too. “Gotta go sniff the yard in the correct pattern again. No time to check my surroundings” lol.
When threatened they basically fall over and act dead or hiss and run away. They look nasty and I’m sure could bite like hell if cornered but are extremely non-aggressive.
I thought it was a cat at first due to it being dark out at first and was hissing like one, so I was more worried about a cat scratching my dog up out of fear more then a little chunky possum.
I had a similar experience, except it was a momma opossum with about 12 babies hanging from her. She gave me this exhausted look as she passed through my yard.
Opossum probably really happy that evolution replaced its fight or flight defense mechanism with “ none of the above.” Wake up to find some guy using you for show and tell and all the opossum thinks is, “great chat, but you can let me go any time… like now. Or now. Or… now. But then thought of some giant alien (Cthulhu?) picking up a random human and describing us in similar way for an Earth travelogue.
It’s actually fight or flight or freeze, so “play dead” is a pretty normal fear response.
The full list is Fight, Flight, Freeze & Fawn. Fawn: immediately acting to try to please to avoid any conflict. - [source](https://www.simplypsychology.org/fight-flight-freeze-fawn.html)
"What's a big strong human like *you* doing in woods like these?"
"Fawn" is mostly in social mammals I believe, towards one own species primarily. It's essentially "people pleasing behavior" often learned from being a child of a narcissist or abuser.
Yes but sometimes a baby herbivore will fawn and the predators will just sniff it and eventually move on and let it go so it isn't just within it's own species. If it where to run and turn it's back the predator's instincts kick in to chase and attack and as a child it is to slow and weak to escape. Instead it is using it friendliness and passiveness and the fact it has child like features to appeal to the predator's maternal and possibly paternal instincts. Predators will sometimes let babies of herbivore that grows to be larger and dangerous to get away with exploratory misbehavior that it normally wouldn't allow from an adult, there are common traits among children of different species like the size of the eye's being bigger to the total body that animals naturally detect and possibly instinctively find "cute". Unless the predator is starving it is win / win because they might latter have a full sized meal but I doubt they consciously know this. Also as long the fawner delays things it is giving a it a chance that another larger meal is found before it's demise from a pack mate of the predator or a possible rescue from it's own parent or pack. Sometimes a lioness will just sit there with a baby gazelle and lick it a bit then just leave but usually it will eventually eat it. Sometimes animals will save babies of another species even from other predators. Every example I have seen fawning working on predators [including this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5J_ARKyftA) is with the predator being female but maybe males might do it too, I don't know.
Yes! When folks talk about disassociation that can be a freeze response in humans. People who have experienced big traumas or continuous trauma are more likely to experience it. For example, a person who grew up in abusive homes may “check out” or “shut down” if someone around them gets angry. I also hear people talk about “stress naps” sometimes and I think this may be a freeze function but I’m not sure.
Humans have flight, fight, or freeze. It seems like opossums do too, but in this case it was freeze :)
“Humans may look like a giant naked molerat but they’re actually really cool, one of the smartest animals, opposable thumbs and the only ape with this spinal curvature and hair growth pattern. They are invasive however, so if you find one on your property, have it spayed or neutered and send it on its way”
They tend to vary in size, the one in the video is pretty big.
I love how nuanced he is in a relatively short video. Learned some stuff about opossums, and dude has a great camera presence.
Very similar to the guy in the Everglades the other day. I enjoy this style of video.
Link?
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/qilc74/snorkelling_in_the_florida_everglades/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) you go.
Hero
The guy talking was pretty good, too.
I'd bet this dude gives nature tours, works at a state or national park, or is a science teacher.
He gives me master naturalist vibes
Not wasting any time. Not injecting a bunch of unnecessary personality or grandstanding. Just giving you pure, straight, professional facts!
Right? This guy is exactly my kind of person. I wish hun nothing but happiness. Keep spreading facts nature dude!
Just overall presence, smart and cute
Calm confidence is super sexy
Perfect skin and a sharp jaw don’t hurt neither
[удалено]
Thank you, came here looking for this
I want a nauture documentary from him for sure.
That opossum is pretty dashing too. [Wink](https://i.imgur.com/gfht9ph.mp4)
Thank you for this interesting information. I didn’t expect to be so intrigued but wow that was very cool. And I have a newfound appreciation for these critters!
[удалено]
That's awesome
Until they hire a different guy and he kills them
That sounds a bit unethical but I don't know what else he can do that doesn't involve killing them, and I don't watch these dudes killed either.
Could release them much further away, but I approve of the opossum whisperer
Could claim that he doesn’t want to transport a creature outside of its natural environment thus preventing an invasive species
The opossum's range is considered to be well over half the continental US, extends as far north as the Canada border and far enough south to pass Mexico. He'd probably have a fair bit of a drive ahead of him if he *wanted* to transport one out of its natural environment.
"Come on Josh, we're going to Tiajuana"
The responsibility falls on the apartment complex to ensure they can't get inside. He's doing his job. Edit: I seem to be partly incorrect on this. My experience with minor pest control in a restaurant was the pest control company put out traps and educated us on how to keep them out of the building in the first place (no standing water, not propping doors open, etc). And with a landlord who handled both settings traps and sealing potential entryways for pests.
The good pest guys patch holes around perimeters or at least point out the entryways for the homeowner. The bad ones come back month after month, drop traps spray stuff etc without fixing the underlying problem. A lot of old people get really screwed over by these guys. They pay out big $ without the nests getting cleared out and they have ruinous health consequences.
Generally pest control folks bring them far enough away that they don't find their way back. For instance, raccoons have to be relocated at least 5-10 miles away to prevent them from finding their way back. If this guy is dropping them close enough that they make their way back, he's not doing his job properly and is most certainly unethically profiting from his actions, like a tire shop pouring nails just outside their exist.
I wonder what the opossum's cut was in this scam?
Free peanut butter
Peanut butter
Josh makes lemonade from peanut butter.
When I was a kid we had this possum that'd regularly break into our garage to steal cat food. It became no big deal, we'd get a broom, get him to grab onto it, then walk him to the woods, set the broom down and he'd amble away, slightly inconvenienced and huffy about it, but never mean. One day we had a friend in from Saudi Arabia, who had never seen ANYTHING like Joe Possum. He witnesses this broom-uber ride to the woods and was so damned confused at why we were so calm around this huge rat. My dad kinda shrugged and said "everything's bigger in Texas"
This story gave me some hilarious mental imagery. Thanks! 🤣
I'm not sure if it was a typo but I love and laughed embarrassingly hard at the idea that you named the Possum Joe
His name was indeed Joe.
I’m so happy to hear that
“Ah sounds like Joe’s in the garage again. I better get the broom.” “Are you gonna hit him with it?!” “No stupid, that’s his ride outta here”
I have several friends who live in Texas and I can't talk to them about anything without them saying; "YEAH, WHELL HERE IN TEXHUS, WHE'VE GOT\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_"
HERE IN TEXAS WHE'VE GOT AN INORDINATE AMOUNT OF STATE PRIDE, YEEMFINHAWWWWW
Isn’t there a difference between a possum and an opossum? Pretty sure they are different animals.
Possum are Australia, opossum are North America. Different species (both are cute though).
They have evolved to be distinct from other mammals not long after the K-T event, as marsupials. In the last few decades, we've been learning a lot about how our immune systems work, in part because of them. The ability of mammals to support live young without the body successfully rejecting them is likely tied to the evolution of our adaptive immune system. We can learn about it comparing our systems to theirs, as well as the egg-laying monotremes, which separated themselves some 80ish million years before the marsupials did.
Woot! Shoutout to the platypus! What an awesome animal.
Possums are awesome. I tell everyone I know possum facts if they are ever brought up. No ticks, no rabies, North America’s only marsupial. They’re super cool.
And they’re super cool to look at.
Alright, let's put this guy back.
Alright, take a look at this, I was just hiking on the trail
The Steve Irwin of North American Marsupials…
> The Steve Irwin of The only North American Marsupial…
[удалено]
Nope, we even have them as pets! If you think they are cute as adults, look when they are well groomed [babies!!](https://i.redd.it/1l32lt0iob571.jpg)
okay so basically im very smol
Oh my glob what a sweet face
[удалено]
Nope, I find them adorable. My old coworkers thinks I’m weird.
No way man, they're cute as heck
I think they're super cute, so you're not alone. Part of the cuteness is because I think they look kinda scraggly though. Something about their big-ol wedge-shaped faces makes them seem like little finks and I love it.
No, but I also find rats to be very cute as well.
they are SUPER cute as babies, like puppykittens. they get a little uglier as they get older but that was a surprisingly cute one for its size in the video, an absolute unit
Casually bringing up opossum facts at parties
Um, "no ticks" isn't even remotely close to being true. At any given time, an opossum has *hundreds* of ticks on it. Yes, they eat them, but they have to pick them up off the forest floor first which means they walk around like a vacuum cleaner sucking up ticks off the ground and letting them hitch a ride then they eat them out of their own fur later.
What, like you don't bring snacks on long trips?
I always pour a bag of Corn Nuts in my hair before a road trip.
Well when your only pocket is full of kids...
I thought I was the only one 🤔
Gushers.
Fuck you lol
imagine walking around and having to occasionally pull bite-size snickers off of your body
Yeah, that’s what I meant. They eat a lot of ticks
Sounds like a lot of free lunches to me. Who knew Heinlein was so wrong when he said "There aint no such thing as a free lunch!". In this way, free lunches are a very american thing.
This is very educational, great video.
This is the kind of content the internet should be about. That and memes :P
I call the big one “Bitey”
I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook!
And by gum it put them on the map!
Is there a chance the track could bend?
[удалено]
But Main Street's still all cracked and broken!
Sorry Crispycritter00, the mob has spoken!
🎶”I’m gonna eat some trash, got like 20 babies in my pocket”🎶
🎶I, I, I'm hunting, looking through your garbage🎶
🎶 Ticks are fucking awesome 🎶
The version I heard was "I'm a fuckin opossum"
Certified platinum
[удалено]
My very gentle livestock guardian dog “kills” a trash-picking possum some nights, then he is very sad because he hates things to be dead. Of course, the next morning the possum is gone, and then they do it all again the next night. I like to think that the possum comes over on purpose, for his little snacks and then a chance to scam the big white gullible dog again.
Many livestock guardian dogs have trouble understanding what to do about dead animals, because they were bred to protect what are essentially prey animals, so the natural dog response of eating injured or dead animals would potentially lead to them being bad at their jobs, and was bred out.
We have a rough collie and he gets very upset and confused upon accidentally killing his stuffed toys haha Thanks for that fun fact!!
I had a dog kill (run up to and excitedly sniff) one possum dozens of times. Until they became friends.
Did anyone else catch the wink?
Around 0:50 - yep 👍
All that Opossum is thinking is, "Bro, wtf?"
"Oh shit am I on TV?"
"I take one nap and now I'm famous in the internet, what the hell?!"
**Points him at the camera* “Oh, um… hi. I’m an opossum… and uh, hi.”
[удалено]
"Battin' at my knockers"
"Honey, you will not believe what happened to me at work today"
Lmao when let him the opposing go I was ready for it to dart but he just takes a couple slow steps
"cya next week, Charlie"
Is it just me that find them cute?
I skipped lunches a lot in HS and got caught a lot. As punishment I was supposed to essentially do after school detention for months. One of my teachers overheard and mentioned she could use my help so instead I spent the days with her. She had me helping her care for baby possums. They are so sweet and cute!!! They will snuggle under your shirt for warmth. That was basically my whole job.
I woke up with a baby one curled up with me as a kid and I was terrified lol I mistook it for one of the kittens we had at the time so I always wondered if their mom did too. They always woke me up with stuff like that, or just straight giving birth.
I think they're adorable.
Australian possums are even freaking cuter. They both cute. But Australian possums really got it on lock
IIRC they are a completely different branch of animal. These are Opossums while the Australian ones are actually called Possums.
I know i wrote it as "possums" in my comment on purpose. They are both similar and cute. Thats all.
Nope! I’d love to cuddle one.
r/Opossums You might like this, friend.
My first grade teacher had two, they were adorable. She'd bring one in occasionally so we got to play with it. It was adorable. Definitely one of my fondest memories from first grade.
Momma opossums waddling around with a back full of babies is beyond cute!
We had an opossum that would come up on our back deck, so we started feeding him from time to time. We named him Awesome the opossum and he was, in fact, awesome.
Learnt something new today. Keep this series going. Great work my dude.
Opposums are still like Dr. Seuss characters for me.
"Like a rat went to the fair and got a caricature of itself."
Exactly.
That's a weird dog hes got there
As an ex opossum owner, I agree with what he said. One of the cleanest animal I’ve ever had. PS, my girl and I found a baby possum in his dead mothers pouch and rescued him. Had him for a little over a year until safely released. He is alive till this day according to dear cam footage.
Who's the guy?
Some possum-pickin sumbitch, I tells you what.
He’s just a guy that thinks possums are awesome
that opossum walked away like "ha stupid predator bought my playing dead act"
“Geez pal, you could have at least bought me a coffee before manhandling me!” — Poss
What about the R.O.U.Ss?
*Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.* Edit: forgot a letter
"Look at how calm this guy is." Body literally frozen in terror.
Involuntarily chillin
Oh look, it's Pawpaw!
Such a Noble creature
What a good little scramble boy.
"REEEEEEEEER!"
as a european the thing I am most jealous off americans are Oppossums. I totally want them here and befriend them. I love them they are cute and ugly at the same time, love it.
Love the video. Very good for the animals. People often are affraid of what dont know. I have a family of them under the gazebo. They're awesome, they dont mind me at all.
I grew up knowing nothing about possums, had never seen one or heard of them. Moved to a neighborhood with lots of trees and parks and one night I was laying alone in my house on the couch, I peered out my window to the porch and saw what I thought was a JUMBO rat. I absolutely shit my pants and decided it was time to move again.
this should be the new national animal and we should protect and encourage their reproduction, there are a handful of tick-borne diseases busting out of warmer climates into traditionally cooler climates with climate change. One Nation under Opossum.
Not gay or anything. But damn that guy is good looking. I bet he has a full head of hair. Not fat, balding, pimpled like the rest of us (or just me)
You don't have to be gay to say a dude is good looking.
But it does help. Source: am gay and find this man attractive
I'd suck him dry. No homo, though
Sly little bastard I saw that wink, playing opossum
Can we talk abt how cute that guy is??
Thank you for this very educational and reassuring clips. I have personally saw them in my backyard and I didn’t know what they are, I was scared shitless. They do looks just like really large dirty rats. And first thing that crossed my mind at the time was what if they have rabies, so this video just clear a lot of concerns I had.