Category: Mammals
This species of canid is also known as the timber wolf or western wolf. They are native to wild and remote areas of North America, Eurasia, and northern, eastern, and western Africa. They are the largest member of the canidae family and specialized for taking down large prey. Gray wolves are highly social animals, with complex hierarchical pack structure. Despite the fear of wolves that pervades many human societies, attacks on humans are very rare and most wolves have an instinctive fear of humans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_wolf
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.
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