So Ugly They Are Cute

—Taro Ietaka, Director of Conservation and Land Stewardship

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, to most beholders, opossums (Didelphis virginiana) are at best "interesting looking." A less generous description was given by comedian and podcast host Marc Maron who called them "nature's gargoyles". Opossums are clearly in need of some positive PR if they hope to get drivers to avoid them on the road instead of flattening them.

Opossums can't help the way they look. They really are different from the other animals we see in North America, in fact, they are the only marsupial on the continent. Like their distant relatives the kangaroos, they also carry their young in a pouch. However, unlike kangaroos, they also carry their young on their backs when the pouch gets too crowded and mom needs to move her young in a hurry. PR talking point: they are good mothers.

We should also forgive them their habit of making awful smells when playing dead. When frightened, opossums faint and will remain unconscious for up to 40 minutes. While in this state they foam at the mouth and make a nasty smell to deter predators. I think we can all agree - we are not responsible for smells we make while asleep.

The best way to earn opossums some love is to spread the word that they may be saving us from black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), the ones that transmit Lyme disease. Opossums don't hunt for ticks, ticks come to them. As you'd expect for a furry animal that lives in a forest, opossums get their fair share of female ticks looking for a blood meal. However, opossums are a dead end - ticks latch on, but they rarely succeed in feeding and dropping off safely. Research done at the Cary Institute in Millbrook, NY by Dr. Richard Ostfeld showed that opossums are remarkably good at grooming ticks off of themselves, much better than other animals he studied. Over 90% of ticks that attempt to feed on an opossum are eaten - that is an estimated 5000 each year, per opossum.

At the Rye Nature Center we think opossums are beautiful and are happy to have them living nearby and eating our ticks. To make their lives a little more comfortable, we've created brush piles in areas which lost trees to Hurricane Sandy. These brush piles now serve as shelters for birds, skunks, and our new favorites, opossums.