West Seattle wildlife: Caught playing (o)possum

| West Seattle news | Wildlife

Quick break between news stories – more in the works, but first we wanted to share that photo e-mailed by Kristina with this explanation:

My dogs and I were walking on the green area off of Bonair and we came upon a possum playing dead. It’s North America’s only marsupial! After we gave it some space it perked up and sauntered off into the trees.

Everything you could ever possibly want to know about opossums – including what “playing possum” is all about and how they got to our area in the first place – is on this helpful state-created webpage.

possum June 7, 2009 (8:13 pm)

Great shot! A possum did this late one night when I went to take my dog out. He actually pounced on it and it didn’t move! Looking at those teeth I was so surprised it didn’t bite him. But at the time I thought my dog had killed my neighbors cat. Thankfully after I put him inside and came back out to check on the ‘cat’ it was gone. My husband said “don’t you know the term ‘playing possum?’ ” and no I didn’t!