"Oh Possom, My Possom": What we can learn about acting from the Virginia Opossum

Humans enjoy acting and pretending - on stage, in board games or with children. But for the Virginia Opossum, didelphis virginiana, acting is a life-or-death survival mechanism. Here are four lessons we can learn about acting from North America's only marsupial:

Lesson # 1) Whatever type of acting you want to do - go at your own pace. 

Maybe you want to try out a community theater production before you quit your job and move to LA to make it big?

Photo credit: Public Domain pictures (link)

The opossum, a master of disguise, knows this well and walks at a comfortable pace of about half a mile per hour. At top speed, they can waddle about 3.5 miles per hour. You can easily walk after an opossum. Granted, they are nocturnal animals, so they are walking around in the dark. They have long whiskers to help them navigate. They can climb well thanks to their almost human-like hands, opposable big toes and prehensile tail. They can also swim! 

Hollywood and the opossum world share the motto: "Live fast and die young." These animals only live  to be about 1-2 years old in the wild, 3-4 years in captivity. Female opossums are sexually mature at 6 months old. They have two to three litters per year, and raise about eight young - called joeys (like kangaroos). Males are called jacks and females are called jills. There is no word for a group of opossum because they are solitary creatures. The gestational period for an opossum is 12-13 days! This means that  just 12 or 13 days, less than two weeks after conception, tiny opossums the size of jellybeans will independently crawl into the mother's pouch and latch on to a teat for 55 days. 

Lesson # 2) Acting can be competitive - be aggressive!

Believe in yourself and be aggressive, like the opossum. The opossum does an excellent job acting dangerous - when they are actually harmless. If you startle an opossum, they will hiss and show you their 50 teeth, to convince you they are tough. It's an act.

They drool, a lot. This keeps their mouth clean and aids in digestion. But they are very unlikely to have rabies because their body temperature is too low. 

Just leave them alone and they will not hurt you, or your pets.

Photo credit: Pxfuel (link)

Lesson #3) Commit to your role - and if you fake your own death, be convincing. 

Every great soap opera has the part where you think a character is dead, BUT THEN they re-enter the story and it is revealed that they faked their own death. 

Like gambling addicts, opossums also have to look over their shoulder because predators are out there and they want a tasty, safe meal. Opossums are so committed to their role, they even emit a horrible odor, a rotting smell, that combined with their top-notch performance - wards off predators. Most predators are instinctively drawn to live, moving prey, so while the opossum may get beaten up a bit, playing dead actually keeps them alive. 

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons (link)

In all seriousness though, this trick is actually not voluntary. The opossum, when faced with a life or death situation, experiences a catatonic state, almost like fainting. They will not respond to stimuli, they leave their eyes open and they won't even blink. Opossums can stay in this state for up to 6 hours. 

Opossums take the phrase "break a leg" very seriously! Skeletons of opossums often reveal healed fractures that would kill most animals. This hardy animal can heal quickly. Some animals have evolved to escape, others to fight back when faced with a predator. Opossums have evolved to feign death and survive getting roughed up. They are so tough that one opossum drank a whole bottle of bourbon, enough to kill some humans, and didn't even have a hang-over the next day.  

Lesson #4) Support your community - give back.

When you make it big, remember where you came from. Donate, volunteer, and mentor. Be like the opossum - who eats 5,000 ticks every season - including ticks that carry lyme disease. They also act as part of nature's clean-up crew - eating carrion and roadkill. Opossums even eat venomous snakes, because they are immune! We are even learning about the aging process by studying the genetics of opossums that cause their early aging process. Plus, they are an important part of the ecosystem, acting as both predator and prey in food webs across most of the United States. 

Photo credit: Pixabay user Jalynn (link)

Lesson #5) Hang in there!

Keep trying and you will improve! Have a safety net in place, like the opossum has their prehensile tail. While it's possible for them to hang upside down, it's a myth that they sleep like that, or hang for extended periods of time. Opossums mostly use their tail for balance, to catch them if they lose their grip while climbing, and also for carrying grass & twigs back to their den. Never pick up an opossum by their tail. This can cause serious damage to their spine or dislocate their tail bones. The best way to capture them if necessary is to toss a blanket over them and scoop them up like a cat, and then place into a travel crate for relocation. I recommend calling a humane professional. 

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It's time that the opossum gets all fandom they truly deserve for being unique, fascinating, harmless and beneficial animals. Also, they are pretty darn cute. I mean really, jacks & jills & joeys?? Adorbs. You can join their fan club by becoming a member of the Opossum Society. 

Or at the very least, slow down when you see them on the road at night. If you have opossums in your yard, let them be, they are eating ticks back there, or if you must relocate them, choose a humane trapping and relocation service. You can even try to attract opossums to visit your yard by choosing native plants for your yard. 

Sources & Further Reading:

https://opossumsocietyus.org/

https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/media-coverage/opossums-killers-ticks

https://www.livescience.com/56182-opossum-facts.html

https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/opossum

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/species/opossum/

https://opossumsocietyus.org/how-to-attract-opossums-to-your-property/

Opossum: It's Amazing Story