Butch and Pinkie the Opossums Wash Their Faces...and a Look at That Opposable Back Toe!

As it turns out opossums are quite into tidying up.   Particularly after eating anything in which their "hands" were involved  or if their face might have gotten icky. 

Note how when Pinky is washing her palms/pads and outside fingers she has placed her inside finger against her tongue so it gets a bit of a scrub on the in and out.

I also find opossum teeth fascinating.  Just look at the variation.

Her tongue is quite flexible and mobile...and quite wet.  Here it is bending backwards onto the bottom pads and the licking is rapid.

Once her paws are reasonably clean and wet, Pinky scrubs them quite rapidly over her muzzle.

Then she licks her paws clean again, licks her muzzle and does another scrub.


Butch goes through somewhat the same procedure but doesn't tip his body back as far on his hind legs.
 


He also does both front paws and then goes for his muzzle.  He worked at it for awhile as he'd just devoured a piece of sugary apple pie. Then he too scrubbed his muzzle. 

  He evidentally got quite full as he left a piece of crust, right.  Crust being an Opossum

If eating only sunflower seeds neither Pinky or Butch bothered with a scrub before leaving.

Here is Pinky letting herself down off coal chute cover.  

Look at that tail.
Opossum tails are also fascinating.  As we know they are prehensile but not in the curly active way that say some monkey tails behave.  They are odd... (I know what do I want....THIS IS A OPOSSUM)...heavy looking, awkward, and stiffish until suddenly they start picking things up or using them to climb.  Then their tail suddenly becomes more alive and no longer looks so awkward and carrot-ish.

And there it is!  On the right of her foot-the opposible toe. 

 Also strange looking. 

 Currently Pinky is gripping the edge of  coal shoot cover with some of her front toes and using the other two toes for balance.  Note how the opposible toe is turned  up toward her body.  If she were just walking that toe would tend to trail out behind her foot a bit

This makes oppossum tracks look a bit strange but notable if you are tracking.

Speaking of tracking, neither Pinky nor Butch have returned to the feeding station for some time or at least I've not found a trace of them.

Though perhaps I need to put something more tempting out for them.

Today it snowed several inches.  Perhaps sunflower seeds and various legumes and a variety of snack food just aren't making it anymore.

I do have to admit that the female Crows loved the eggshells and the Blue Jays are mad for stale Fritos though.

Yes, it is time to put out bigger opossum temptations...peanut butter and peaches in heavy syrup.

And soon the hawks may be stalking the feeders besides.

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

Visiting Opossums....Size and Ear Patterns. Are There Two of Them or Are There THREE?

This is Pinky, whom I take to be a female.   She is about
half the size of the male opossum or opossums. 

Yes I've been spending hours and hours comparing big possum pics trying to decide if there really is more than one Butch. For right now we'll just pretend there is only one. 

 Now back to Pinky.  Note that all her front toes are pink with black palm gloves.  Some of Butch's toes are black.   She also has more pink area  on the tops of her ears than Butch does.

 And to help in memorizing her ear patterns
 for later  identification, I've decided that the dark parts of her ears appear to be black Halloween ghosts with their arms outstretched saying BOO.

It doesn't help that the ear pigmentation pattern sometimes looks different depending on whether you are seeing the back or front of the ear.  Not only that but ear patterns look somewhat different depending on the direction of the light..

Note Pinky's size in relation to the coal chute cover. 

Now look at Butch who is in somewhat the same position in relation to the chute cover.

Can you see the difference in size?  In reality he is quite a bit larger than she is.

A conundrum...

No opossums have visited in the last two days even though there is a mound of food waiting for them.  

How do I know they haven't visited?  I arrange the food in a way so that I can tell if it has been disturbed.

Plus, I am at a bit of a disadvantage as I suspect meat is their favorite and I don't dare put that out very often as I don't want to attract the feral cats that just might decide Pinky looks like a nice snack.  She might be able to take them but I don't want to put the opossums in danger in the feeding area.

My current theory is that Pinky and Butch may have found a dead deer or other large animal and they have been working on that for the last couple of days. 

Also as deer season for bow is still open someone may have field dressed a deer in the woods not far away and the opossums are busy tidying up the leavings.


Donegal Browne

P.S.  Up for tomorrow Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot, Squirrel the Black Cat and Tig the Basinji play The Great Tootsie Pop Game!

BUTCH THE OPOSSUM EATS MORE APPLE PIE AND WHAT ABOUT THAT RABIES MYTH ?

 c

It is raining and has been raining heavily all day and into the night.  Temperature has been in the low 40's.  Butch is quite soaked.  Ordinarily the long hairs of his coat catch the rain and keep it from soaking the fur close to his body but even this adaptation isn't working in this constant heavy cold rain.

2:28 AM  Just as I discovered Butch's visit, he was pulling today's piece of apple pie off the window ledge.  He is now eating it.  Somewhat out of sight unfortunately.