Opossum fearlessness?

Although rarely I have seen Opussum's fight large dogs. Most of the time they play dead and will continue to do so while the dogs are crunching their bones while they are still alive.

Opossum's are one of the strangest of North American animals to me. They are not all that bright and playing dead while something is crunching its bones seems to be the worst of all ideas for survival tactics.

But I think they have been around a lot longer than humans.

Most animals respond fairly predictably, IME. It's the strange reactions, which you often see
here on the forums. Most of the varmints and critters which wind up on the slower side of the
Quick and the Dead, aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. I had a Raccoon stand up in the middle of the
Highway, full height, watched my truck's headlights bearing down, as he allowed himself to be run over, and killed. It's doubtful, that he was the smart one of the litter.

Possums are nocturnal, used to moving quietly about, with little pressure, in the dark. They have a difficult time dealing with bright lights, and a lot of sudden movement around them. And sometimes the dumber ones of the bunch simply make stupid decisions, and react in a unpredictable or ill-advised manner. I've found, that generally
speaking, Possums and most other Nocturnal Critters aren't going to push a
confrontation.

The new Mossberg Shockwave is a fairly handy tool for dealing with these backyard pests. I recently
have come into a S&W Governor for dealing with all the Possoms, Armadillos, and Raccoons we run into
out here, after dark.

I would say that more Opossum's are killed on the road while dining on their recently killed best buddies than by any other means. Not uncommon for me to see two road kill opossums side by side.

Raccoons are at a different level than opossums. Raccoons are just mean, fearless, and nasty.

Even the healthiest opossum looks sickly. I put them all out of their misery whenever I see them.

The possums that eat the cat food my niece leaves out for her barn cats are pretty much fearless, as are the coons. They mostly snarl and growl as they slowly walk away, then come back immediately when we go into the house. The one that got trapped in my garage was much meaner. But, I opened the garage door and poked him with a rake, so he left. The are dumb and ugly. When I have a gun handy I snuff them out.

They don't seem especially smart, but they can be tough to kill. I popped one between the eyeball and ear with a 22 LR at about 20 yards (eyeball even popped out) and it just went on eating the bait- took 2 more shots to put it down. Shot another broadside thru the chest at the same distance with a CCI 22 mag HP and it ran off to parts unknown.

Whether you consider them smart or dumb, opossums are exceptionally good at being opossums and are probably better at it than humans are at being humans. Evolutionarily as a species, they have us beat for survival capabilities. Their ancestors were around with the dinosaurs. Modern Virginia opossums have been around longer than modern humans. They even developed immunity to rabies.

frogfurr said:

Opossum's are one of the strangest of North American animals to me. They are not all that bright and playing dead while something is crunching its bones seems to be the worst of all ideas for survival tactics.

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And yet it is a tactic that works very well for them. Could it be that the perception that this is such a bad idea actually be hugely wrong given the fact that it is a tactic that has helped the species survive so well? Sure.

Generally, when encountering a 'possum, I pick up a thick stick and whomp him with it. If it doesn't kill him, he feigns death and then gets the real thing.
I killed a female in the yard once and 7 little 'possums came crawling out of her pouch. They were cute little things but knowing they would grow up and be like their mom, I let them join her.

This past summer during the middle of the day one came wondering up to me and my buddy and was acting all weird and him having 3 toddlers running around the fenced yard he chased it away but after it coming back 2 more times he said this is a safety hazard to my children and gave it a 22lr round to the head in which it ran down the hill and off into a rock pile and took 2 more rounds of 22lr standard velocity to finally put it down. It was almost naked with no fur so we were thinking mange and maybe rabies. We generally give varmints such as coon and possums a pass cause they aren't really harming anything but one raccoon decided to fight the dog during daylight in the fenced back yard so it was taken out and any woodchucks too.

I don't think it is that they are brave. Just not smart enough to run.

He probably wanted you to pet him. How could you resist a handsome animal like that?

I woke up to clicking one morning. Looked under my bed and there was a big muskrat staring at me. No idea how he got in. One time I put my coat on and a squirrel jumped out of the sleeve. Terrified me. Most recently there was a mallard in my fireplace.

If an opossum is as dumb as these creatures, then I can easily see one walking right up to a guy.

You could have just stomped it. I had a little terrier/beagle cross when I was a kid that was a possum killing machine. They were always getting in the yard. He'd go to barking and I'd know what he'd cornered. Once I told him to "git 'em" he'd jump on the possum's neck and I'd hear crunching of bones. It was evil.

One night he got on the back porch right under the window of my bedroom. I had to get up to check out what he was barking at at 2AM, grabbed my .22. It was a HUGE possum that was so big it was holding its own keeping the dog at bay. I shot him, dog pounced and started shaking the thing. I got rid of it and went back to bed. Mom got up that morning, went to the back porch with a load of cloths for the washer, and started yelling at me. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OUT HERE?!" In the dark, I hadn't noticed, but there was blood on the walls, blood all over the washer and dryer, and all over the freezer on the porch. I grabbed the water hose and washed it all down after explaining what had happened. The dog didn't catch any flack, I caught it for him.

Out here in the woods, I carry 3 handguns when I go to town. I take the .45 or .357 off my hip and go with the back ups in my pocket which aren't much to carry. I'll ether have a .22 mag NAA Black Widow in the right pocket or my .38 snubby ultra lite. In my left pocket, I ALWAYS carry my NAA mini in .22LR which I picked up in the 80s. Both NAAs have folding grips on 'em and I've been playing with that little .22 so long, I shoot it amazingly well. I have shot the heads on quite a few cottonmouths with it around here since we've move in. I've taken a lot of small game with it, rabbits mostly, and vermin critters in the night, possums and 'coons. The latest was a possum on the back porch eating the catfood off the old fridge I have back there that I store chicken feed and deer corn in. I always have an answer on me for such situations, never have to go find a firearm. Now, I have more accurate handguns, but the little NAA just seems to always be there when needed and it's accurate enough to take a rabbit at 50 feet.

Now, I've never had a possum ever "charge" me. If one did, I'd suspect it was rabid.

Oh, in my old house in Port Lavaca I had possum visitors from time to time. I was eating one morning at the kitchen table when one fell through the ceiling from the attic and bounced off the table and onto the floor. I didn't have my little NAA on me as I was in my jammies. So, I went to the bedroom and grabbed my loaded 10/22. I shot several out of that house. It had too many ways for critters to get in from under the house. The house I'm in now is much more critter secure.

Anybody else ever have one this brazen?

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When I was a teenager I noticed that a possum had chewed it's way through the dry wall into my grandmothers garage. We lived in the city too. It wasn't like we lived in a rural area or anything. I chased it out and nailed up some plywood with the intent to patch it later.

The next day my grandmother went to get into her car and the possum was in there again and it went after her and scratched her legs. I took my Ruger .22 and went in there and shut the door so maybe the neighbors wouldn't hear the shot.

It was about 10 feet away and it raised up on its hind legs kind of like a miniature bear and I shot it in the chest. I poked him a couple times and then used a dust pan to scoop him up into a trash bag and put him in the dumpster.

Went to the rear of the garage and he'd chewed a hole right next to the plywood that I put up. For some reason he really wanted in that garage. I'm not sure why, we didn't keep food in there. I didn't know that they could chew through thin sheet rock and stucco either. Whole thing was kind of weird.

They have very poor eyesight. Been around hundreds of them. Never had one bother me. Since I won't kill something without a reason, I've never bothered them.

Well, if you don't kill THEM (and 'coons which are even worse) they'll kill your chickens.

'Coons harass my feeders. I've trapped and killed so many back there the ground is littered with their bones after the vultures cleaned 'em up. There are more 'coons back there than ever. I don't know what it would take to thin their population, probably a nuke, and that would thin out ME. I bet they'd be right back, though, when the fires died out from that nuke.

The vultures around here love me. They sit in the trees and wait to greet me. LOL! Every once in a while, they get a big old pig to feast on. They have a good life out here in the woods, don't need to risk the 18 wheelers on the highway.

Possums eat many thousands of ticks per season. No need to kill them unless causing damage to something else. Can’t get rabies, eat ticks and snakes, backup food plan in EOTWAWKI scenario, ugly as sin. What’s not to love?

I've had far too many "pet" coons over the years to ever kill one unless it was obviously rabid.

My father and grandfather always taught me not to kill something unless I was going to eat it, or it posed a threat.

fordtrucks said:

No need to kill them unless causing damage to something else.

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When possums get caught in a box trap we relocate them.

A .357 is more than a bit of overkill for just a possum, but I suppose if it were the first thing you could lay hands on then use what you have.

I keep birds myself. I long ago came to the conclusion that I will never be able to kill enough possums, coons, bobcats, coyotes, etc to keep my birds safe at night. A properly built nighttime coop to keep them out and a couple of dogs to discourage them from coming around works for me.

I'm not against eliminating pests and predators when necessary, have done so many times, but there are some problems one cannot shoot your way out of.

Possums are meaner than i thought. Have video of them on my game camera running raccoons AND coyotes off food.i guess coyote wasnt up to scrapping over what I had thrown out for the critters that evening

I could never bring myself to cook a 'coon. I have recipes in game cookbooks, just those little opposable thumbs, look like human hands. LOL! I kept one once in the freezer until it freezer burned, never cooked it and threw it out, finally. Now, POSSUM, those are NASTY critters. I can't imagine being hungry enough to eat one of those marsupial rats. I do eat tree rats, though, but they're not marsupials. I'm in luck, though. If the world comes to and end, I'm sure there'll be more pigs than ever around here. Ain't like the population of pigs is declining, either.

possums have a mouthful of teeth. sharp like needles. no wonder other animals generally leave them alone.