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  • Opossum

    I think everytime I visit NY State I see a dead 'possum on the road and at night I have seen plenty of live ones too.This weekend I probably saw half a dozen on Routes 81 and 12. Unusual for me because just cross the St. Lawrence it is not an animal I see here at home. It seems odd that the St. Lawrence is barrier to them when it isn't for any other animal that I am aware of.

    Are they in the Adirondacks themselves? I am pretty certain I have seen roadkills there as well.
    Izaak Walton a great writer? He can't even spell COMPLETE.

  • #2
    I have seen a ton of roadkill this fall in the Southeastern Adirondacks. Lots of skunks, porcupines, woodchucks and a few opossum. Skunks have been a particular nuisance this fall around the house.

    The "Possum" has apparently made the jump over to Southern Ontario according to THIS ARTICLE and THIS ARTICLE.

    I remember my dad shooting a pesky possum with a pellet gun then having to finish it off with a large walking stick, it wasn't pretty.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by ScAtTeRbOnE View Post
      I have seen a ton of roadkill this fall in the Southeastern Adirondacks. Lots of skunks, porcupines, woodchucks and a few opossum. Skunks have been a particular nuisance this fall around the house.

      The "Possum" has apparently made the jump over to Southern Ontario according to THIS ARTICLE and THIS ARTICLE.

      I remember my dad shooting a pesky possum with a pellet gun then having to finish it off with a large walking stick, it wasn't pretty.
      You use that excuse too?
      A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they never shall sit in

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      • #4
        Originally posted by ScAtTeRbOnE View Post
        I have seen a ton of roadkill this fall in the Southeastern Adirondacks. Lots of skunks, porcupines, woodchucks and a few opossum. Skunks have been a particular nuisance this fall around the house.

        The "Possum" has apparently made the jump over to Southern Ontario according to THIS ARTICLE and THIS ARTICLE.

        I remember my dad shooting a pesky possum with a pellet gun then having to finish it off with a large walking stick, it wasn't pretty.
        Looks like they are dispersing from the Niagara area.
        Izaak Walton a great writer? He can't even spell COMPLETE.

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        • #5
          True story;
          I had a 'possum that kept getting into the garage, one day I caught it in a garbage bag so I tossed the bag outside and clubbed the thing twice in the head with a Louisville slugger. I threw the bag in the can outside the garage and told the wife to make sure she disposed of it before it started to stink in a few days.
          She waited over the weekend and on Monday put the bag in the car and took it to the dump. When she dumped the bag in the compactor the 'possum crawled out on top of the compactor.
          Two things....1) I know what playing possum now means, and 2) I now just trap them and relocate them.
          I think the worst thing would have been if the thing got out inside the SUV while my wife was driving THAT would have been bad for me!
          Hunt when you can, Fish when you can't.

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          • #6
            I remember 'possums as a kid in Niagara in the 80's. My wife grew up in Greater Toronto, and never saw one until she moved down here. I chalked it up to the Niagara micro-climate and its slightly warmer winters vs the north shore of Lake Ontario. If you had them, you'd know it for sure by the screams.

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            • #7
              Opossums are sometimes confused with other animals....
              Attached Files
              “Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. They smelled of moss in your hand. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.”
              ― Cormac McCarthy

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              • #8
                We have them...and a lot of them in Monroe County

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                • #9
                  Road kill pizza

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                  • #10
                    I grew up in the southeast corner of the park and never saw a 'possum until I moved to Maryland in the early '80s. When I moved back home in the late '80s, they seemed to be everywhere and also seemed to have replaced the woodchuck and raccoon as most common roadkill victims.

                    I just saw one walking through my yard the other night. While most wild mammals look very well-groomed and fit to me, 'possums look like dirty old homeless bums in comparison.

                    Take it easy,
                    Bob

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                    • #11
                      Hahaha....that is funny Bob
                      Izaak Walton a great writer? He can't even spell COMPLETE.

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                      • #12
                        I've never seen an opossum in the Northern Adirondacks, but have seen many in Vermont. I have relocated them from urban areas when they've gotten themselves stuck in a house. They are generally nomadic, and will eventually move on and not take up residency. Most wildlife rehabbers I know ask people to check their pouches for young if there is a dead one, I think they may be the only marsupials in North America. I have not yet been able to bring myself to poke through the pouch of a dead one.

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                        • #13
                          I dont think Ive ever seen them in the Adirondack parks but I know Ive seen them in Oneida County.

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