Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Sunday Possum
The cute little fellow, above, was the first dig on Sunday, and was released to the safety of a nearby tree.
Possums are not too tough as quarry goes -- they have very small brains, are not very speedy, and have relatively small teeth (though they have more of them - 50 - than any other North American animal). The chief "competitive edge" of the possum is that they will eat almost anything and have a phenomenal reproductive rate. A typical female possum will have two litters a year, each with as many as 18 young. The gestation period for a possum is just 13 days -- the shortest gestation period of any furbearer in North America (though "birth" is into a marsupial pouch, not into the great outdoors).
This particular possum was a noisey little bugger -- he growled like a fox, but it was mostly bluff as it so often is with possums.
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