Toots Rileyopossums naturally have big round ears, but you often see them with crumpled ears or no external ears at all because they are very prone to frostbite.
boost to give an opossum a pair of earmuffs
another thing about opossums is that they are not terribly bright.
you can estimate an animal's intelligence not based on straight brain size, but rather based on its brain size relative to its body size. This can be measured by counting how many dried beans fit into the brain case in a species' skull.
Raccoons, cats, and opossums are roughly the same size. A raccoon brain case can fit 150 beans. A cat's can fit 125. But an opossum's, bless its heart, can only fit 25 beans.
The most important thing I can tell you about opossums, though, is that they breed pretty much all year round, but especially between February and June. so if you see a dead possum on the road and it's safe to stop, it's always good to check to see if it's a female. If so, check her pouch (pictured on a live possum) for babies. They can live for several days in her pouch after she's been killed, so you can often save the babies and take them to your local wildlife rescue.
Silence of the Dems 🐼@Chinchillazilla also Opossums are VERY RARELY infected with rabies because their low body temperature makes it difficult for the virus to survive.
@dennis_reichel yes! essentially, to get rabies, an opossum would have to already be sick from something else and running a fever, because at their normal body temperature, the virus can't reproduce and infect anything.
DebbieDowner
@DebbieDowner OH MY GOD
I'M SO JEALOUS
future escapee@Chinchillazilla Is it advisable to try and rehab rescued babies (what is the correct term for them, pups? cubs?) or should we take them to a wildlife rescue? we have cats so am concerned about keeping them segregated for safety and also about returning them to the wild after being spoiled rotten
@a9ymous I would err on the side of taking them to a rehab unless their eyes are open and they're eating solid food and stuff. I imagine it's really hard to keep the little naked ones alive on your own