With the Wild Things: Opossums

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|a FI00900177

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|a With the Wild Things: Opossums |h [electronic resource].

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|a Ft. Myers, Florida : |b Whitaker Center in the College of Arts and Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University.

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|a 3 podcasts, approximately 1 minute each in length

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|a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the users responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.

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|a Source: Opossums 1 Length of Segment: 00:01:15 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. The life of a Virginia opossum is a pretty short one, but long enough to keep the species going. The average opossum lives less than two years, but they mature quickly and can produce up to thirteen young when they are less than a year old, followed by another litter within about three months. Although eighteen or more young may be born, no more than thirteen can survive because females have only thirteen nipples: twelve arranged in a circle, and the thirteenth in the center of that circle. The average opossum brood, however, includes only six to nine young. The nipples are within the female’s pouch, and at birth, the young must crawl through the mother's fur to reach the pouch. It's a race for life. If the nipples are all taken, a baby is out of luck. Once a newborn opossum grabs hold of a nipple, it swells in the baby's mouth so that it can't let go, forming a fixed pipeline of nourishment until the baby is mature enough to hang on for the ride. Baby opossums spend more than two months in their mother's pouch and may spend another three to four weeks clinging to her fur or tail, returning occasionally to the pouch for a snack before they become independent.

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|a Source: Opossums 2 Length of Segment: 00:01:10 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. We all know the expression, “Playing opossum”: sort-of pretending to be asleep when you're really not, a favorite kids' trick after the magic hour when they're supposed to be in bed. The expression, of course, comes from a characteristic behavior of the Virginia opossum that is often described as a ruse to make predators think its dead. When you think about it, such a trick might not do much for the opossum because some predators are glad to find a tasty meal, dead or alive. However, it does sometimes work on discouraging dogs; a dog will grab a live opossum and shake it and when the opossum goes limp, it often drops it and leaves. When faced with an adversary, a Virginia opossum opens its mouth, bares its 50 teeth in a most threatening show, and drools excessively, enough to scare most humans. The Virginia opossum’s movements are slow and mostly bluff. If a viciousness bluff doesn't work, however, the opossum’s nervous system seems to become overloaded and it faints dead-away. It may be a behavior that saves the opossum's life, but there's no play to it.

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|a Source: Opossums 3 Length of Segment: 00:01:15 Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Although Virginia opossums are slow moving and short lived, they have thrived in the modern world. The reasons for their success reflects some of their behavior and ecology. Although our opossums don't hibernate, they can survive cold winter weather by crawling into tree cavities, under buildings, or other sheltered places. Cold weather does take a toll, however. If you take a close look at a Florida opossum's ears, you'll find they're bare and rounded, black at the base but pink along the outer edges. If you examine an opossum from a northern area, you may find that its ears are short, black, and scalloped in appearance. This is not the way it was born, however. The black pigment helps the opossum retain body heat. The pink lobes, however, often freeze solid and fall off, leaving this scalloped appearance. Opossums were once limited to warmer areas, perhaps primarily because of the lack of food in winter. Because of human garbage and pet foods that are readily available in suburbia, they've been able to expand their range north into Canada. The Virginia opossum is not a picky eater, it's what we call an 'omnivore'. It will eat almost anything.

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|a Added automatically.

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|a Opossum, common.

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|a Dr. Jerry Jackson.

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|t Opossums 1

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|t Opossums 2

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|t Opossums 3

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|a dpSobek.

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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades.

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|a With the Wild Things.

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|a dpSobek |c Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades

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|u http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI14090844/00001 |y Electronic Resource

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|3 FIU Helix Media Library |u http://libtube.fiu.edu/player?autostart=n&fullscreen=y&width=320&height=260&videoId=897&quality=hi&captions=n&chapterId=0 |y Opossums 1

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|3 FIU Helix Media Library |u http://libtube.fiu.edu/player?autostart=n&fullscreen=y&width=320&height=260&videoId=898&quality=hi&captions=n&chapterId=0 |y Opossums 2

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|3 FIU Helix Media Library |u http://libtube.fiu.edu/player?autostart=n&fullscreen=y&width=320&height=260&videoId=899&quality=hi&captions=n&chapterId=0 |y Opossums 3

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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades