Hey Buddy!

Check out who we met on our Devil’s Lake hike yesterday! It’s a cute little opossum! (Not to be confused with the critter in Australia called a “possum”.) Our opossums got their name from the Algonquian word ‘apasum’, meaning white animal.

The great thing about these little white animals beyond being “cute” is that they are opportunistic eaters, meaning they eat whatever is available. Rats, mice, dead things… they’ll eat it! Eating mice is a good thing since scientists say white-footed mice are the primary carriers of the Lyme bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which makes them the main culprit in the spread of Lyme disease.

Up until very recently, it was thought that opossums were eating up to 5,000 ticks directly per season. Then a study in 2021 showed that they may not be going around hoovering up as many as previously thought. Research continues. But as diligent groomers, the ticks that collect on them will still become lunch!

Of course, right now all wildlife is stressed out as the gun-hunting season continues in Wisconsin. (Heck, our dogs are stressed by the gunfire as well!) So we were quick to take our photos and move on.

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** A reader asked if we were concerned about the nocturnal opossum being out during the day. Good questions. The first thing to realize is that “nocturnal” doesn’t mean “only out at night”, it’s more of a general behavior but not an absolute one. Individual animals have a variety of personalities, lifestyles, and reasons for doing things. So, if the critter seems healthy it’s probably fine. That said, these pics were actually taken just as the sun had set below the bluffs, so it was morning coffee time for nocturnal animals in the park!