|
North America's only marsupial (an animal with a pouch), the Opossum is about the size of a large house cat. It has a triangular head and long pointed nose. It has a prehensile tail adapted for grasping and wrapping around things like tree limbs. The Opossum is a nocturnal animal and uses it sense of smell to locate food. It is omnivorous, so they eat a wide range of plants and animals. Opossums often et grass, nuts, fruit and grains. Rodents, birds, frogs, insects, worms, snails, slugs and snakes are often on their diner plate in addition opossums are scavengers, so they search for table scraps in garbage cans and dumpsters. Opossums also eat meat and bone from road kill or carcasses left behind by other hunters. Because they eat insects, slugs and snails, they are helpful to gardens. Opossums also help maintain the population of rats and cockroaches, because they all compete for the same food. In fact, opossums sometimes kill their competion in order to eat well.The mother may have as many as 25 babies, 7 to 8 is the norm. The young are about the size of a navy bean and climb up the mother's fur and into her pouch where they live and suckle for 55-60 days then they climb out onto their mother back for another four to six weeks. |