1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,559 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbomb here with another classic episode for you. In 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: this one, we delve into the wonders of the North 4 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:19,800 Speaker 1: American apossum, one of my very favorite trash eating marsupials. 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbomb Here. If you live in 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: North America, you've probably seen a Virginia apossum, a classification 7 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: to Delphis Virginiana. Maybe the unfortunate creature was dead on 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,239 Speaker 1: the road, or maybe it was very much alive on 9 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: your porch eating garbage in the middle of the night. 10 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: But in either case you might have thought, oh, gross, 11 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: a possum. But you would have been off base on 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,360 Speaker 1: several counts. First of all, possums live in Australia and 13 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: are also a marsupial, which means they raise their young 14 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,879 Speaker 1: in a pouch like a kangaroo. But there are completely 15 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: different species and the animal currently snuggling with a half 16 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: eaten bag of Dourrido's at the bottom of a curbside 17 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: trash can in North Carolina, which is correctly and a possum. 18 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: We spoke with Richard Otsfeld, senior scientist at the Carrey 19 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. He said, 20 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:10,960 Speaker 1: folks get very confused about this. 21 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 2: I've had people tell me triumphantly that they discovered building 22 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 2: plans for possum nest boxes and that they planned to 23 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 2: install dozens of them to encourage a possums to multiply 24 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,040 Speaker 2: on their property. But when I looked up the plans, 25 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 2: they were designed for brush tailed possums in Australia, completely 26 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:31,040 Speaker 2: useless for possums in North America. So with that part settled, 27 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 2: A possums aren't that gross, even if they wouldn't mind 28 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 2: taking that moldy pad tie from the back of your 29 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,839 Speaker 2: refrigerator off of your hands. They may look a little creepy, 30 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,399 Speaker 2: what with that long, hairless, prehensile tail, the mouthful of 31 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 2: haphazard teeth, and the beady eyes, but A possums are 32 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 2: the fastidiously groomed and most likely disease free wildlife heroes 33 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 2: of your neighborhood. It's a common misconception, possibly prompted by 34 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 2: their bumbling swagger, that A possums often carry rabies or 35 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 2: a distemper. In fact, they rarely get these diseases because 36 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 2: their body temperature is too low to make them susceptible. 37 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 2: Not only do a possums not carry these diseases, the 38 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 2: presence of an apossum in your yard is your best 39 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 2: bet for combating lime disease. A two thousand and nine 40 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 2: study explored whether black legged ticks the disease vector four 41 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 2: lime disease might be regulated by wildlife that they parasitize. 42 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:25,239 Speaker 2: Of fifteen forest dwelling mammals and ground nesting birds, a 43 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 2: possums were the only ones to destroy the vast majority 44 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:30,359 Speaker 2: of all of the black legged ticks that tried to 45 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 2: feed on them, over ninety five percent. Ostfeld, who co 46 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,120 Speaker 2: authored the study, said, our calculations indicated that a single 47 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,399 Speaker 2: apossum is capable of killing several thousand larval ticks per 48 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 2: week during the late summer peak. We also know that 49 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:46,919 Speaker 2: of those ticks that do successfully feed on an apossum, 50 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:49,679 Speaker 2: only a small fraction will become infected with the lime 51 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 2: disease Bacterium, so apossums are protective in two ways, killing 52 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 2: ticks and preventing infection. A study by the same research team, 53 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 2: published in July twenty eighteen and the journal Ecology, found 54 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,160 Speaker 2: that tick borne disease risk was reduced in areas where 55 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 2: a possums were present. For an animal that does more 56 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,640 Speaker 2: than its fair share of hobbling into traffic and is 57 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 2: known for flopping over like a corpse at the mere 58 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 2: swiff of danger, apossums are perhaps surprisingly intelligent to begin with. 59 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:20,360 Speaker 2: Weak eyesight and a nocturnal nature both contribute to the 60 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 2: fact that you're probably more familiar with the sight of 61 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 2: a dead apossum than a live one. In addition, their 62 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 2: primary defense mechanism, playing dead is almost entirely involuntary, a 63 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 2: reaction to extreme stress that leaves the apossum in a 64 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 2: coma for a few minutes to a couple of hours, 65 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 2: and a comatose possum can take a beating that would 66 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 2: kill other animals their size. This, then, is a great 67 00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 2: strategy if your mortal enemy is a bear, but not 68 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 2: so great if it's a toyota. So, if, for example, 69 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 2: your dog corners on a possum one night in the backyard, 70 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 2: don't worry. The apossum may hiss and show its teeth 71 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 2: at an attempt to look scary because it's frightened, but 72 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 2: the last thing at wants is to tangle with your 73 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 2: four legged friend, it will invary, lay down, and play 74 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 2: dead until the threat gets bored and passes A. Possums 75 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 2: are non aggressive, docile creatures, far more afraid than they 76 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:13,160 Speaker 2: are to be feared, and they're also fastidiously clean. Like cats, 77 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 2: opossums are constantly grooming themselves with their paws and tongue, 78 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 2: partly in order to make sure they're parasite free, but 79 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:21,599 Speaker 2: also to keep themselves cool. They lack sweat glands, so 80 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:24,919 Speaker 2: grooming is like apossum air conditioning, and they do it 81 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 2: to keep themselves smelling like well nothing. As we've established, A, 82 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 2: possums aren't great at protecting themselves in a stand off 83 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 2: with a predator, so it behooves them to stay odor neutral. 84 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,240 Speaker 2: Part of the reason apossums have the reputation for being 85 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 2: smelly has to do with one other defense mechanism, the 86 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 2: smell of death. Once an a possum goes into its 87 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 2: theatrical coma, if a predator continues to mess with it, 88 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 2: the apossum may excrete a smelly mucus from glands in 89 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,720 Speaker 2: its anus. This has been to signal, hey, this a 90 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 2: possum is definitely dead, and possibly so entirely dead that 91 00:04:56,040 --> 00:04:59,919 Speaker 2: it'll make you sorry you ate it. Speaking of assum 92 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 2: are really smart about what they eat, because it turns 93 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 2: out they have great memories. Once an aposum tastes a 94 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 2: chemical that doesn't agree with it, it will remember and 95 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 2: avoid the smell of it for a year afterwards. Though 96 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:13,279 Speaker 2: a possums are immune to some things that would poison 97 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 2: other mammals, including most snake venoms. Apossums are biologically fascinating, 98 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 2: which led to some confusion among early Europeans in the 99 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:26,000 Speaker 2: New World. Their story was the male apossum made it 100 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,159 Speaker 2: through the female apossum's snout, which led to her sneezing 101 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 2: out her babies into her marsupial pouch. Of course, this 102 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 2: is not scientifically accurate, but apossums definitely do things a 103 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:40,160 Speaker 2: little differently. First of all, a male apossum has a 104 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 2: forked penis, but it's not meant for the female's nostrils. 105 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 2: Female apossums have a double vagina and twin uteri. Apossum 106 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 2: embryos develop for about thirteen days until they are large 107 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 2: enough to migrate down the birth canal and emerge about 108 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,800 Speaker 2: the size of houseflies. To continue developing in the mother's 109 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 2: pouch Although dozens of them will be born, the mother 110 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 2: only has thirteen teeth, so that's probably how many will 111 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 2: be able to survive into adulthood. Today's episode is based 112 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 2: on the article of possums so darn ugly They're adorable 113 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,119 Speaker 2: on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Jeslynshields. Brain Stuff 114 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 2: is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks 115 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 2: dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. 116 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,960 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 117 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.