QUESTION: What male mammal is called a “jack”, a female of the same species is called a “jill”, their young are called a “joey” and a group of them is a “passel”?
ANSWER: the opossum! The opossum is North America’s only marsupial. Marsupials have a pouch where the young develop. An opossum gives birth to several tiny young and nurses them in her pouch until there are 2 to 3 months old.
Opossums are about the size of a cat, with short legs and thick bodies. They have grey to black fur, black eyes and ears, with a pointed pink nose and pink feet and tail. Their tail can be up to 93% of their head to body length. They are nocturnal, active during the night and sleeping by day.
Breeding season starts in December and continues through to the next October though joeys are commonly born between February and June. The female opossum can have 1 to 3 litters per year. Eleven to thirteen days after mating, as many as 20 infants may be born weighing about 0.13 grams apiece. All twenty could fit in a teaspoon. After 2 to 3 months in their mother’s pouch, they crawl on her back for a ride as they learn survival skills like where to find food and how to avoid predators. A young opossum separated from its mother will sneeze to get her attention and she responds with clicking sounds.
Opossums are your local pest control. Their diet consists of carrion, rodents, insects, snails, slugs, eggs, frogs, plants, fruits and grains. They eat just about anything. They even eat the skeletons of rodents they consume for the calcium content. With 50 teeth, they can easily crunch up those bones.
The only mammal, other than humans, with opposable thumbs, but unlike humans, these are on their rear feet. Opposable thumbs and prehensile tails make them efficient climbers able to grasp tree branches and allowing them to briefly hang by their tail. They even use their tails to carry bundles of grasses and other materials.
When threatened, the opossum may growl, run, belch, but also play dead, or “play possum”. Rolling over, stiffening their body, baring their teeth so saliva drips from their mouth, this catatonic state can last for four hours. For this reason, they are sometimes called the drama queens of wildlife.
Worried about snake bites? Opossums are immune to a variety of snake venoms. In some parts of the world, death from snake bite is common, and the opossum holds the answer. A protein from the opossum responsible for this immunity contains the sequence of 11 amino acids needed for antivenom which can save the life of snake bite victims.
How about Lyme Disease? Opossums can consume up to 4000 ticks a week. It is believed they help prevent the spread of Lyme Disease because they pick up ticks during their travels and are busy consuming them as tasty snacks.
So, if a cute passel of opossums travels through your yard, be thankful. They picked up a few mice for a tasty meal, had a nice tick snack, a slug or two for dessert and may save your life someday if you are bitten by a snake.
Saving Wildlife Saves Us!