Many examples of Opossums using their prehensile tails for gathering building materials and carrying them to selected den sites to make comfy nests. In slow motion close-up we can see how they do it, the opossums select materials with their teeth and pass them back through their front feet and then to their back feet and then push it onto the waiting curled tail and then close tight. Like somebody loading their car at a Home Center - it may not always be pretty, but they get the job done!
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Virginia Opossums are fascinating animals that live all around us and are often taken for granted.
They are the only marsupials north of Mexico and have a prehensile tail – that is - a tail adapted for grasping and holding objects.
Their long tails are hairless and boneless but full of muscle making them strong - like a fifth limb used for climbing, grasping food items, extra bracing support while digging dens or foraging for food in trees and maybe even hanging by them for short periods while moving about in the trees if they are not too heavy yet –They have five toes on each paw including opposable thumbs so combined with the special tail they are remarkably agile climbers.
But perhaps most interesting is their use of their prehensile tails for gathering building materials and carrying them to selected den sites to make comfy nests and I'll show several examples of opossums large and small.
Opossums (possums) are typically seen walking about with their tails out straight - but they can turn them into perfect grasping limbs when foraging for prime nest material like long leaf pine needles and dried and shredded palmetto leaves behind the Backyard.
In slow motion close-up we can see how they do it, the opossums select materials with their teeth and pass them back through their front feet and then to their back feet and then push it onto the waiting curled tail and then close tight.
Like somebody loading their car at a Home Center - it may not always be pretty, but they get the job done!
I've sung the praises of opossums before, they are great Backyard neighbors, and the fascinating use of their tails is just another example of their uniqueness.
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