Tag: opossum

Tiny opossum

On By CarynIn Wildlife
Photo description: small mammal checking out a food dish on wood steps, possible opossum
Photo description: adult opossum on the same steps, bowl for scale, with a tabby cat peeking out from behind the door

At first I thought the mammal in the first picture was a rat, but it doesn’t stand like a rat, it stands like an opossum.

Oh yeah, I checked the trail cams again. Downloading a thousand photos and then deleting the ones I don’t want was exhausting, to me and the cloud. So then I was using the Photos app to pick just a few remarkable pics to download, but the thumbnails are very small there and hard to see what is going on in each picture.

I found a better method this last time: open up the folder on the USB card in the Finder app (Mac), maximize the preview size, and arrow button press through single-view photos before ever downloading them. I drag the interesting pics to a temporary folder, and keep going. It is also like playing a time lapse video, I see the photos rapidly in sequence and get a better idea of the animals movements.

Not buddies

On By CarynIn Wildlife

I collected the trail came videos from the last three weeks and realized that I need to collect them more often. There were 1,000 photos on one card and 4,000 on the other. Yikes. Mostly known cats, then a smaller percentage of opossums, raccoons, deer, and an armadillo.

I kept seeing pairings of raccoon and opossum photos, so I selected those for download.

Photo description: night vision view of a raccoon and opossum on a small wood porch

While not fighting enemies, these two aren’t friends either.

Photo description: same two animals, opossum has its mouth open

Still, they occupied the porch together circulating around the bowls looking for snacks for over ten minutes.

Odd couples

On By CarynIn Cats, Wildlife

I’ve had a few interesting interactions caught on the trail cam of unexpected pairs.

Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of a raccoon on a bench and a tabby cat walking on the nearby porch. The cat spotted the raccoon and slipped on by.
Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of two opossums, which is unusual because they are solitary. As soon as the one on the ground noticed the one on the bench, the moment was over and it left.
Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of an opossum on the coop porch and a raccoon on hind legs looking at it. The opossum actually held its ground, but the raccoon didn’t care. The raccoon got onto the porch, checked for snacks, then left, all while the opossum huddled against the door.
Photo description: night vision trail cam photo of an opossum on the ground, and a short haired black cat stepping down off the porch. The cat carefully navigated around the opossum.

I have my trail cam set to take photos every three seconds when there is movement, so the shots on either side of the ones I selected above told me the story. I chose the most representative photo to share.

From this set of data, it seems the raccoons are top, then opossums, and then the cats come in last, giving the others wide berth.

Standoff

On By CarynIn Cats, Uncategorized, Wildlife

It has been while since I checked trail cams. Mostly the SD cards were full of cats, raccoons, and opossums, but there was a series of photos where an opossum was investigating the cat food when a cat came along.

Photo description: night vision view of a back step off the coop with a young opossum, back to the camera, and a black short haired cat, facing the camera

The result was a no-contest. The cat went straight to the bowl of the food on the cat box, away from the opossum, and when the cat settled in to eat and not attack, the opossum left. I’m pretty sure the cat is the one we call Greebo, who has scars from fighting and his fur is thinned with some kind of mange. He actually looks healthier since he joined the neighborhood colony. The last couple years he and Fang show up in the Fall and then head out again in Spring or Summer.

Oh possible ID

On By CarynIn Wildlife

I think I’m seeing three different opossums on the trail cam closest to the coop.

Photo description: opossum #1, smaller, darker, head narrower
Photo description: opossum #2 thicker, lighter in color, larger through the jowl and neck
Photo description: opossum #3, oh dude, you look like you’ve been through the wringer and seen some stuff, could this be a geriatric opossum?

I had to look up the lifespan of a wild opossum: 2 years. So a three-year-old opossum would be elderly. Now I’ll be watching for another glimpse of them.

I am pleased that my new trail cams give me enough resolution to identify individuals.