The Raccoon and the Possum
 

I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either. I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On 3/25/2019 9:22 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either.

Opossums aren't exactly known for speed. :)

I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

Maybe the Possum and the raccoon are BFF's in private life. LOL

The only opossum I ever encountered was outside my fenced patio back in
TN. It was a young one. I spotted it hiding in some shrubs along the
back wall of the apartment when I went out to check the mailbox. I sat
down and stayed very still. It sort of meandered out from under the
bushes, across the lawn to a tree and proceeded to climb up, very
slowly. It didn't seem at all disturbed by me. Didn't show me it's
teeth. Wasn't Speedy Gonzales, either!

Jill

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 11:58:03 AM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/25/2019 9:22 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either.

Opossums aren't exactly known for speed. :)

I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

Maybe the Possum and the raccoon are BFF's in private life. LOL

The only opossum I ever encountered was outside my fenced patio back in
TN. It was a young one. I spotted it hiding in some shrubs along the
back wall of the apartment when I went out to check the mailbox. I sat
down and stayed very still. It sort of meandered out from under the
bushes, across the lawn to a tree and proceeded to climb up, very
slowly. It didn't seem at all disturbed by me. Didn't show me it's
teeth. Wasn't Speedy Gonzales, either!

Jill

Just after I posted this last night, I looked outside and there they were eating face to face again. Yeah, I don't know if the Possum is female or not, but I don't want to be Godfather to those babies.

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On 3/26/2019 1:07 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 11:58:03 AM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/25/2019 9:22 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either.

Opossums aren't exactly known for speed. :)

I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

Maybe the Possum and the raccoon are BFF's in private life. LOL

The only opossum I ever encountered was outside my fenced patio back in
TN. It was a young one. I spotted it hiding in some shrubs along the
back wall of the apartment when I went out to check the mailbox. I sat
down and stayed very still. It sort of meandered out from under the
bushes, across the lawn to a tree and proceeded to climb up, very
slowly. It didn't seem at all disturbed by me. Didn't show me it's
teeth. Wasn't Speedy Gonzales, either!

Jill

Just after I posted this last night, I looked outside and there they were eating face to face again. Yeah, I don't know if the Possum is female or not, but I don't want to be Godfather to those babies.

They would look weird, for sure! Perhaps they just both realize a good
thing (free food!) when they see it and have called an armistace.

I honestly don't know if they are are naturally antagonistic towards
each other.

Jill

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 1:55:03 PM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/26/2019 1:07 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 11:58:03 AM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/25/2019 9:22 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either.

Opossums aren't exactly known for speed. :)

I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

Maybe the Possum and the raccoon are BFF's in private life. LOL

The only opossum I ever encountered was outside my fenced patio back in
TN. It was a young one. I spotted it hiding in some shrubs along the
back wall of the apartment when I went out to check the mailbox. I sat
down and stayed very still. It sort of meandered out from under the
bushes, across the lawn to a tree and proceeded to climb up, very
slowly. It didn't seem at all disturbed by me. Didn't show me it's
teeth. Wasn't Speedy Gonzales, either!

Jill

Just after I posted this last night, I looked outside and there they were eating face to face again. Yeah, I don't know if the Possum is female or not, but I don't want to be Godfather to those babies.

They would look weird, for sure! Perhaps they just both realize a good
thing (free food!) when they see it and have called an armistace.

I honestly don't know if they are are naturally antagonistic towards
each other.

Jill

It depends on the raccoon. I heard screaming coming from my garage a few years ago, and ran out to see what the heck was going on. A raccoon had a opossum by the tail, and was dragging it around, snarling and growling. I stomped my foot, and the coon let go, then went right back after the poor possum. I grabbed my hose and hosed the coon down, driving him away from the poor possum. I trapped the coon that night, and turned him into a animal control guy that lives down the street. The coon was a miserable SOB - he turned the trap over while he was in it, growling and snarling at me. Even the animal control guy said he was a mean sucker!

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On 3/26/2019 2:09 PM, Mishi wrote:
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 1:55:03 PM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/26/2019 1:07 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 11:58:03 AM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/25/2019 9:22 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either.

Opossums aren't exactly known for speed. :)

I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

Maybe the Possum and the raccoon are BFF's in private life. LOL

The only opossum I ever encountered was outside my fenced patio back in
TN. It was a young one. I spotted it hiding in some shrubs along the
back wall of the apartment when I went out to check the mailbox. I sat
down and stayed very still. It sort of meandered out from under the
bushes, across the lawn to a tree and proceeded to climb up, very
slowly. It didn't seem at all disturbed by me. Didn't show me it's
teeth. Wasn't Speedy Gonzales, either!

Jill

Just after I posted this last night, I looked outside and there they were eating face to face again. Yeah, I don't know if the Possum is female or not, but I don't want to be Godfather to those babies.

They would look weird, for sure! Perhaps they just both realize a good
thing (free food!) when they see it and have called an armistace.

I honestly don't know if they are are naturally antagonistic towards
each other.

Jill

It depends on the raccoon. I heard screaming coming from my garage a few years ago, and ran out to see what the heck was going on. A raccoon had a opossum by the tail, and was dragging it around, snarling and growling. I stomped my foot, and the coon let go, then went right back after the poor possum. I grabbed my hose and hosed the coon down, driving him away from the poor possum. I trapped the coon that night, and turned him into a animal control guy that lives down the street. The coon was a miserable SOB - he turned the trap over while he was in it, growling and snarling at me. Even the animal control guy said he was a mean sucker!

I gather they can be mean suckers! Fortunately I've never encountered a
situation like that. I gather you were using a Hav-A-Hart trap. They
don't have to like it. I've never tried to trap either one.

Jill

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 2:26:14 PM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/26/2019 2:09 PM, Mishi wrote:
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 1:55:03 PM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/26/2019 1:07 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
On Tuesday, March 26, 2019 at 11:58:03 AM UTC-4, Jill McQuown wrote:
On 3/25/2019 9:22 PM, Bill Stock wrote:
I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either.

Opossums aren't exactly known for speed. :)

I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

Maybe the Possum and the raccoon are BFF's in private life. LOL

The only opossum I ever encountered was outside my fenced patio back in
TN. It was a young one. I spotted it hiding in some shrubs along the
back wall of the apartment when I went out to check the mailbox. I sat
down and stayed very still. It sort of meandered out from under the
bushes, across the lawn to a tree and proceeded to climb up, very
slowly. It didn't seem at all disturbed by me. Didn't show me it's
teeth. Wasn't Speedy Gonzales, either!

Jill

Just after I posted this last night, I looked outside and there they were eating face to face again. Yeah, I don't know if the Possum is female or not, but I don't want to be Godfather to those babies.

They would look weird, for sure! Perhaps they just both realize a good
thing (free food!) when they see it and have called an armistace.

I honestly don't know if they are are naturally antagonistic towards
each other.

Jill

It depends on the raccoon. I heard screaming coming from my garage a few years ago, and ran out to see what the heck was going on. A raccoon had a opossum by the tail, and was dragging it around, snarling and growling. I stomped my foot, and the coon let go, then went right back after the poor possum. I grabbed my hose and hosed the coon down, driving him away from the poor possum. I trapped the coon that night, and turned him into a animal control guy that lives down the street. The coon was a miserable SOB - he turned the trap over while he was in it, growling and snarling at me. Even the animal control guy said he was a mean sucker!

I gather they can be mean suckers! Fortunately I've never encountered a
situation like that. I gather you were using a Hav-A-Hart trap. They
don't have to like it. I've never tried to trap either one.

Jill

Yes, I used a Hav-A-Hart trap, and the animal control guy has an area about 30 miles away that he has permission to release them into. It is swampy, with plenty of wild food. (I asked him before trapping.) It is far enough away that the raccoon will be unlikely to return. We have trapped about 20 coons over the years - our property backs up onto an old cemetery and swampy area, along a creek, so they are very populous here.

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 18:22:53 -0700 (PDT), Bill Stock
wrote:

I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run away either. I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really surprised me.

We have raccoons and possums and I'm sure they get along. Possums and
cats get along well, I don't know about raccoons and cats though.
Neither can eat the other so I suspect they leave each other alone.

Raccoons are very smart, and I haven't noticed them being very
aggressive. Mostly you don't see them; but you see the possums.
Possums don't cause problems at all - if you have damage like
overturned garbage cans that almost certainly going to be a raccoon
rather than a possum. I think it's great that they've found ways to
live and thrive in a human dominated world. We've destroyed so much
animal life that we're very likely to follow it into a well deserved
extinction ourselves. Hopefully the raccoons and possums will take
over and do a better job.

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On Sat, 04 May 2019 14:15:14 +0100, Judith Latham
wrote:

In article , dgk
wrote:
On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 18:22:53 -0700 (PDT), Bill Stock
wrote:

I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the
wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the
light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The
Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run
away either. I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those
sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the
light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really
surprised me.

We have raccoons and possums and I'm sure they get along. Possums and
cats get along well, I don't know about raccoons and cats though.
Neither can eat the other so I suspect they leave each other alone.

Raccoons are very smart, and I haven't noticed them being very
aggressive. Mostly you don't see them; but you see the possums.
Possums don't cause problems at all - if you have damage like
overturned garbage cans that almost certainly going to be a raccoon
rather than a possum. I think it's great that they've found ways to
live and thrive in a human dominated world. We've destroyed so much
animal life that we're very likely to follow it into a well deserved
extinction ourselves. Hopefully the raccoons and possums will take
over and do a better job.

You do have interesting wildlife. We have a fox come around sometimes
during the night and for a few weeks we had a badger visit our back
garden. Apart from that it's a very occasional squirrel, birds and
sometimes mice, usually in next door's garden as Sootie seems to keep any
away (or kills) from ours.

Judith

The coolest thing about southern Florida is definitely the birds. We
have a small lake and we always have egrets and ibisis and cormorants
around. Egrets can get very big, like four feet or so. Then you have
smaller cow egrets that are just adorable. It's funny that the ibisis
are always in big flocks and egrets generally solo.

I was at the Miami tennis tournament two years ago and a four foot
egret was just standing in a walkway surrounded by people going
between the courts. People (mostly visitors I imaigne) woutd just
stare at it.

We have two bird sanctuaries within five minutes of my house so we go
every few months. Anhingas, storks, coots, moor hens, owls, just all
sorts of stuff. Plus the occassional alligator. Lots of fun.

The Raccoon and the Possum
 

On 5/4/2019 9:15 AM, Judith Latham wrote:
In article , dgk
wrote:
On Mon, 25 Mar 2019 18:22:53 -0700 (PDT), Bill Stock
wrote:

I've mentioned that we leave food out for a couple of strays and the
wildlife sometimes gets into it. But the other night I turned on the
light and I see a large Raccoon and a Possum at the same food. The
Possum left as soon as I turned the light on, but he didn't exactly run
away either. I thought Possums were relatively timid, despite all those
sharp little teeth. I don't know what happened before I turned on the
light, but the Raccoon was not aggressive at all, which really
surprised me.

We have raccoons and possums and I'm sure they get along. Possums and
cats get along well, I don't know about raccoons and cats though.
Neither can eat the other so I suspect they leave each other alone.

Raccoons are very smart, and I haven't noticed them being very
aggressive. Mostly you don't see them; but you see the possums.
Possums don't cause problems at all - if you have damage like
overturned garbage cans that almost certainly going to be a raccoon
rather than a possum. I think it's great that they've found ways to
live and thrive in a human dominated world. We've destroyed so much
animal life that we're very likely to follow it into a well deserved
extinction ourselves. Hopefully the raccoons and possums will take
over and do a better job.

You do have interesting wildlife. We have a fox come around sometimes
during the night and for a few weeks we had a badger visit our back
garden. Apart from that it's a very occasional squirrel, birds and
sometimes mice, usually in next door's garden as Sootie seems to keep any
away (or kills) from ours.

Judith

There is some very interesting wildlife in the US and it varies wildly
from state to state. There aren't any badgers (that I know of) in this
country.

I have seen some small red foxes. I'm not talking rural areas where
they might be getting after someones chickens and thus a nuisance. When
I worked in an office complex in Memphis, TN there was a small copse of
woods abutting the parking lot. For a few days one spring we'd look out
the windows and see a fox and her kits playing at the edge of the
parking lot. A couple of times the kits thought it would be fun to run
and jump up on the cars in the parking lot. LOL The vixen (mama fox)
quickly ushered them away. Sadly, a developer bought that land for yet
another office building. A bunch of us were concerned and contacted the
local wildlife preservation society; these foxes need to be relocated
before that idiot razes their home! Sadly, I don't know if that happened.

Where I live now, along with raccoons and opossums (and tons of birds),
there are a lot of deer where I live. There's no hunting allowed in
this community and lots of green space, plants and trees. I love
watching the deer and OB Cats: Buffy is fascinated when she sees them in
my back yard.

I'm told there are wild mink on the island, too. Allegedly they're
rather vicious creatures.

One thing I wish I could see is a hedgehog. From what I've seen on
nature programs and online videos, they're funny little spiny critters
that roll into balls. :)

Jill