Playing Possum?

[elkhunter]

Lots of em over at Patagonia lake!

[firstcoueswas80]

I saw one dead in Rio Rico last year. 

[CouesWhitetail]

here is one we saw at night hiking out after an owl survey.  This was in Pena Blanca Canyon.

[Red Sparky]

From the picture it looks fresh enough to have had opossum pie for dinner. Squirrels are better but don't turn down opossum.

[dse]

I've seen one in the Bradshaw's and had a guy tell me he shot one 30 some years ago around Williams.

[CouesWhitetail]

Randy Babb of AGFD is very interested in any location data on opossums in AZ.  You can email him info at rbabb@azgfd.gov

He co-wrote a paper about the current distribution of the native subspecies.  I attached the paper here for those that are interested.

and here is a graphic from the paper that shows how to tell them apart.

 

 

 

Babb, Brown, Childs Status of Opossum in AZ.pdf

[CouesPursuit]

9 minutes ago, CouesWhitetail said:

Randy Babb of AGFD is very interested in any location data on opossums in AZ.  You can email him info at rbabb@azgfd.gov.

Randy is a great person to talk with and has an incredible amount of knowledge to share. 

[CouesWhitetail]

1 hour ago, CouesPursuit said:

Randy is a great person to talk with and has an incredible amount of knowledge to share. 

Yes indeed!!  I always learn something when I talk to him!  He is a real asset to AGFD and has a wealth of knowledge about the natural history of so many species in AZ.   

[rancilio]

Good stuff.  While going after feral cats, I’ve live-trapped and released 10 or so opossums over the past few years on the east side of the Huachucas just south of Sierra Vista.  They all appeared to me to be the same common Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) that I grew up with in Missouri and Indiana.  We used to catch them in live traps and mark them with paint to see if the same critters came back each night.  I remember being surprised that we rarely caught a marked individual even with catching an opossum almost every summer night.  Just about the only nights we didn’t get an opossum, we trapped a skunk.  All fun for a youngin.

I’ll look for some pics of my recent trapped opossums.