Category: Mammals
These charismatic giants are the largest living terrestrial animals, with an average height between 9.2 and 10.8 feet at the shoulders. They are immediately distinguishable from their Asian relatives by their large ears used for radiating excess heat. Individuals in the wild can survive to be around 70 years old, or until the last of their sets of molars has been worn down and they are unable to feed correctly. They typically eat around 500 pounds of plant matter a day and, because they wander so far and wide, are important for dispersing seeds via their excrement.
The Opossum Ain’t Playing
Many people associate playing dead with the opossum - that’s where the term “playing opossum” comes from, after all. But something you might not know is that when an opossum feigns death, it really goes all out! Not content with merely closing its eyes and laying down, the opossum begins drooling profusely as if ill or even rabid, releases a putrid, greenish fluid from its anal glands that makes it smell like a decaying corpse, and after losing consciousness may even mimic rigor mortis! This is quite the elaborate routine, but it isn’t conscious: when an opossum plays dead, it has actually gone into shock due to stress.
Learn more >>
Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
