- "...Everywhere: Under rocks, in holes in the ground. Usually, we come out at night so birds don't carry us off."
- ―Ellie on possum locations[src]
Opossums, known more colloquially as possums, are small, four-legged mammals that lived during the ice ages into the present day.
Small marsupials, possums have compact, tube-shaped bodies with small, four-digited paws on short limbs. With their keen eyesight, possums are able to see in the dark. Possum fur is striped brown and tan, which makes for ideal camouflage in forests. Most notably, however, is the possum's tail, which is long, thin and hairless: this tail can be used as an extra limb, used in anything from hanging from trees to an extra limb with which to play games. Possums have a number of hiding place, from rocks to trees and in holes in the ground, coming out at night often so as to be safe from predators. The typical possum response to danger is to play dead and lay still, arms, legs and tail all stiff.
Possums were among the animals that lived in the ice ages, and resided in Ice Valley during the days of the flooding, in which the walls of ice surrounding the valley would burst, letting in massive amounts of meltwater. The possums had survived through this, along with other animals. Years before, one possum family would take in a lost mammoth calf and raise her as their own. This unfortunately led her to think she too was a possum.
- Ice Age: The Meltdown (First appearance)
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
- Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas
- Ice Age: Iced In
- Ice Age: Continental Drift
- Ice Age: Where There's Thunder
- Ice Age: The Hidden Treasure
- Ice Age: Collision Course
Behind the Scenes
True opossums are solid grey, without stripes, unlike the ones seen in the movies.
They are most likely Virginia opossums, since there aren't other opossum species that live or lived in North America.
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