True Facts: Not-Dead Opossums and Their Weird Defenses

**Correction: only 1 species in US not in North America as a whole.

Credits:

Dr Giancarlo Carli, University of Siena
Dr William J. Krause, University of Missouri
Dr Kenneth Jones, DVM
Dr Carolin Dittrich, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Eddie Carter
Colin Ewington
Shawn Garvey
Mark Johnson
Bill Richards
Getty Images
Shutterstock
iStock
Envato

Asakura, M et al. (2022). Freezing or death feigning? Beetles selected for long death feigning showed different tactics against different predators. Ecology and Evolution. 12. 10.1002/ece3.8533.

Cassill DL, et al. Young fire ant workers feign death and survive aggressive neighbors. Naturwissenschaften. 2008 Jul;95(7):617-24. doi: 10.1007/s00114-008-0362-3.

Dittrich C, Rödel MO. Drop dead! Female mate avoidance in an explosively breeding frog. R Soc Open Sci. 2023 Oct 11;10(10):230742. doi: 10.1098/rsos.230742.

Hwang JY, et al. Molecular Evolution of CatSper in Mammals and Function of Sperm Hyperactivation in Gray Short-Tailed Opossum. Cells. 2021 Apr 29;10(5):1047. doi: 10.3390/cells10051047.

Hwang, JY et al. (2021). Molecular Evolution of CatSper in Mammals and Function of Sperm Hyperactivation in Gray Short-Tailed Opossum. Cells. 10. 1047. 10.3390/cells10051047.

Mate KE et al. Timetable of in vivo embryonic development in the grey short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). doi: 10.1002/mrd.1080390404.

Moore HD, Taggart DA. Sperm pairing in the opossum increases the efficiency of sperm movement in a viscous environment. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod52.4.947.

Morcillo I Soler P, et al. Bundle formation of sperm: Influence of environmental factors. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.957684.

New DA et al. Growth of opossum embryos in vitro during organogenesis. J Embryol Exp Morphol. 1977 Oct;41:111-23. PMID: 591864.

Nogueira, J.C. et al (1999). The penis morphology of Didelphis, Lutreolina, Metachirus and Caluromys (Marsupialia, Didelphidae). doi:10.1515/mamm.1999.63.1.79.

Taggart DA et al. Why do spermatozoa of American marsupials form pairs? A clue from the analysis of sperm-pairing in the epididymis of the grey short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica. doi: 10.1002/ar.1092360307.

Ulate Gómez, TN et al. (2024). Short communication: Problems of classifying predator-induced prey immobility – an unexpected case of post-contact freezing. Web Ecology. 24. 35-40. 10.5194/we-24-35-2024.

Zhang K, et al. Locomotion of bovine spermatozoa during the transition from individual cells to bundles. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2211911120.

[spookysugar]

What I love about hognoses is that they pull their Oscar worthy performance of "im ded snek", but if moved or touched, they go even "deader". And if you flip them, they flip back, because ded sneks go belly up, and they're the deadest of them all

[rjblaskiewicz]

Once my mother found a dead opossum in the trash can. I told her that it was probably not dead, but she came back an hour later and it was still there. She insisted it was dead. It left that evening. Not the greatest opossum story, I know. But the only opossum story I know.

[HiSodiumContent]

I raised 3 opossums from bottle to release. They were adorable. My favorite part was taking them out at night to prepare them for living in the wild. I wore a furry blanket so they could ride on my back and shoulders while I went around to various food spots (like mulberry trees) and let them forage. They started sleeping in a bass drum when they were adolescents, then when they were old enough I left my door open at night and they all left to live outdoors. I still think about them often.

[alopeksintx]

Fun fact, opossums will sometimes scream if startled. I learned this as a child when the neighbor realized he'd forgotten to take out the trash at about 1:00 a.m. He lifted the lid, dropped in the bag, lowered the lid & was suddenly face-to-face, nose-to-nose with an opossum. Not sure which one screamed first, but they both screamed loud and woke up several neighbors.

[arlomaslen]

My friend: "the worst she can say is no"

Her: *falls over dead*

[OtakuUnitedStudio]

I love how opossums always look either adorable or absolutely deranged with no in between.

The funny thing about the Hognose Snake is that if you try to roll it over again while it's playing dead, it will obstinately try to stay belly up and keep rolling. If that's a reflex, it's an overly dramatic one.

[butterknife]

I had a friend from college who once stepped on a baby hognose. The snake did its thing and played dead, and he mistook it for a dead rattlesnake and took it back to show his equally snake-obsessed professor. Only halfway through the drive back, the snake—which he still thinks is a rattlesnake—comes back to life in his pocket and starts slithering around the car while my friend is convinced that any move could be his last. He finally traps the snake in his car and gets the professor, who informs him that the snake is not actually venomous and therefore he isn’t interested, so my friend has to go back and put the snake back where he found it

[KDannXII]

opossum: sees scary vulture, plays dead
vulture: yoooo free dinner.

[EternalAnkh]

My dog brought a "dead" opossum home once. I told her to leave it outside, then threw some water on it. It got up, looked at me like "wtf?", then waddled away.

[cclockwise_ll]

This is the most comprehensive explanation of how the "freeze" response works that I have ever seen! The actual footage of predators halting their pursuit makes it make so much more sense, especially seeing that of course a predator wouldn't want to waste energy on something it thinks is already dead.

I just finished reading something about human stress responses and how sexual assault victims are often not believed because they didn't "fight" (shouting or hitting etc.) and part of that is that so many people refuse to believe that freezing is a real and instinctual (and thus involuntary) stress response that can help survive violence. I think waaay more people need to be exposed to the compilation of the freeze response because of this.

[michaelkimberling]

Plumber here. I got called out to fix a sewer leak in a crawl space once. The customer said that they could smell sewage coming from the crawlspace. I went down under the house and had him running water in the bathroom where the smell was at its worst. I was panning my flashlight around to see any leaks but it was dry.

I looked to my side beyond a pillar and saw an opossum mouth wide open within touching distance, and when I did my head grazed a nail in the floorboards making a *pring* noise that you might hear in an old horror movie. I nearly burst through the floor Koolaid man style to try to get away from that animal. It turned out that it was dead already and it was the source of the smell. Fun times it was one of the few times I openly swore in a customer’s house.

[Higesgirl]

My ex took care of a baby possum he named Penny. She was anxiety personified as an animal. She was pretty adorable. When she got better, he would set her on my shoulder and she'd stay there for hours. Sometimes I felt her nuzzle. When she got big, we let her free. She would occasionally visit whenever we fed our cats. Also I like how it looks they have fingerless gloves. 💛

[omissis]

I am starting to think the best thing most biology researchers have done so far Is to provide endless material for Ze.Franks's videos.

[silverknight]

"Science hippies" is probably my favorite running gag in these videos

[WestCoastTragic]

I found my mom giggling at the 'effects of drugs on spiders' when I was 15-16. Definitely my first memory of Youtube. I'm 32 now (shit) and this dude still cracks me up.

[Tenchigumi]

I laughed really hard at "it's like a game of musical chairs, but with nipples, and to the death."

Then I felt really bad.

The Ze Frank Experience!

[touremuhammad]

2:31 “Many get on board, but only one will arrive. Sperm Train, coming soon… No, too obvious!” 😂😂

[AniBAretz]

I love opossums. They make wonderful neighbors, coming to visit, sharing a bit of cat food, exploring here and there, never trying to do anything hurtful or harmful.

[CallMeKes]

When I was still a kid my mom found an abandoned baby possum (opossum and possum are both correct last I checked). The local possum rescue told us they were too full to take him but we could take care of him for a year and then release him into the wild. They told us what to do and what to feet him. We gave him a combination of cat food and insects from our garden. He LOVED snails. I named him Smudge and after a year we took him out to a wilderness preserve, far away from the road and let him go. It was very sweet. We did our best to make sure he never became domesticated. Only interacting when we needed to change his enclosure.

[berglettemom]

Years ago, some neighbors of ours had a large opossum “playing dead” on their front steps. It was there for HOURS. They had to put up a sign explaining what was going on so other people would leave it alone.