Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Opossum
The possum was once regarded as a creature of the South, coming north only as far as Virginia, Indi-
ana, and Ohio. However, owing partly to a gradual warming of the climate and partly to transportation
by humans, possums are now found in most of the lower forty-eight states, as well as in southern parts
of some Canadian provinces.
I have a rather good idea just when possums first reached the area of Vermont's Champlain Valley
where I grew up, mainly because of a most amusing incident that occurred in my hometown. A neigh-
bor, Basil Muzzy, went out with his hound one evening in the mid-1950s to hunt raccoons. Soon he
heard his dog barking “treed” and hastened to the spot to dispatch the coon. Instead of a coon in a tree,
however, he found the dog barking at an animal lying on the ground, the likes of which he'd never seen
before.
The strange creature was dead, so Basil picked it up by the tail, brought it back to his car, and
dropped the deceased animal on the floor of the backseat. Then he drove to the home of a friend, who
he hoped would be able to identify the animal.
When Basil summoned his friend and looked into the backseat to retrieve the beast, he
found—absolutely nothing! After puzzling over this for a bit, he realized that the car windows were
shut, so there was no way the animal could have escaped. Accordingly, he began turning the car inside
out. He finally located the object of his search—far up behind the back of the rear seat! The animal was
dead, and his friend had no idea what it was, so Basil opened the trunk, dumped in the expired creature,
and closed the lid. Then he drove to the house of another friend.
Upon arriving at the home of the second friend, Basil asked for his help and opened the trunk to
display his curious acquisition. Nothing! Now, the trunk had no exits and contained only a spare tire
without a tube in it, so it wasn't difficult to fathom where the strange animal had gone. Basil felt around
inside the tire and soon came upon the missing mammal, which he promptly hauled forth. The second
friend didn't know what it was, either, but it was obvious the creature was dead.
