In the News - May 2009
Possums: Things that go bump in the night
MOUNT IDA, Ark. - A sign welcomes visitors to Montgomery County: "Possums
Unlimited."
Montgomery County doesn't actually have the market cornered on opossums, says
Lisa Martin, Montgomery County extension agent with the University of Arkansas
Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service.
"The sign is really more in jest," Martin explains. "We don't have any more
opossums than any other rural area in the state. They can be a problem but not
any more so than anywhere else."
The sign has more to do with the events held in Montgomery County by the
Frontporch Stage and its auxiliaries, Possums Unlimited, and the Nocturnal Order
of the Possum. "It's a little bit of a play on Ducks Unlimited, our logic being
that we ain't got a lot of ducks, but we got a lot of opossums," says Jerry
Babbitt, Frontporch's technical director and sound engineer. But, he assures,
"No opossums have been harmed in our endeavors."
Downtown Mount Ida will be blocked off on Memorial Day weekend for the Good
Ol' Days celebration, featuring gospel music and a car show, and there will be
regular concerts on the Frontporch Stage every weekend between now and October,
weather permitting.
The non-profit Frontporch auxiliaries do occasionally host events to raise
money for charity or for their neighbors in need - a family with exorbitant
medical bills, the humane society, area churches, high school students in need
of scholarship money - all under the name of the state's only marsupial.
The new Possum Queen will be crowned at the Possum Picnic in September,
elected by penny votes to remove roadkill from area highways. She will be
presented with a scepter - a flathead shovel with a gold head - and she will be
charged with providing roadkill for the potted meat distributed at the picnic.
Dr. Rebecca McPeake, wildlife specialist with the University of Arkansas
Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service, says opossums slow,
ambling gaits do make them especially prone to becoming road kill.
"Opossums are fascinating creatures," says McPeake. For one thing, opossums
have 50 teeth, which is more than any other mammal in the state. A surprised
opossum will play dead, hence the saying "playing opossum."
They are omnivores, meaning they will eat almost any kind of food, although
their favorite fruit is persimmon. Their young are tiny - about the size a
bumblebee at birth - and they are born without fur. Babies live inside their
mother's pouches for about the first three months of their lives.
Their fur is sometimes used to trim coats, though their pelts don't bring in
much money. Opossum hides fetched less than a dollar each during the 2007-2008
Arkansas harvest season.
Opossums can climb, but their most common offense is probably tearing into
garbage containers.
Martin says she gets more calls from residents about raccoons than about
opossums, but opossums do turn over their fair share of trash cans. Her advice
to those having problems with the pesky creatures is to make sure to put their
trash bags in a sturdy container and to make sure that container has a secure
lid.
Folks who have problems with opossums in their yards can trap and relocate
them. The state's nuisance wildlife code says property owners may use live traps
for the removal of nuisance wildlife, like raccoons and opossums, provided
trapping is done according to ordinances and statutes established by their
municipalities.
Captured wildlife, according to the code, is to be released alive and
unharmed outside their municipalities' boundaries within 24 hours of their
capture. Traps must bear the name and address, vehicle operator's license number
or vehicle license number of the people setting them.
"I've caught opossums in a trap before, and they can be quite smelly," says
McPeake. "They will hiss and snap to protect themselves - or play dead."
For more information about Arkansas wildlife, visit the extension's Web site,
www.uaex.edu, or contact your
county extension agent. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the U of A
Division of Agriculture.
May 22, 2009
By Kimberly Dishongh
For the Cooperative Extension Service
Media Contact: Elizabeth Fortune
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2120
efortune@uaex.edu
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