From: zarda@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Dr. Strangelove)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Opossums and Armadillo
Date: 18 Jul 90 18:24:31 GMT

I saw the recent discussion on these animals and thought that the
post was appropriate.  Taken from the Book " Flattened Fauna"

Opossum

Habits and Abundance:
    Contrary to popular southeren opinion, opossums are not born dead 
by the side of the road, but may give the impression in places were the
are found abundant. The opossum often forages on the road, and may 
briefly benefit from the varied diet avaiable there. It will literally
eat anything, including its relatives who were feeding on the road a 
few days earlier. In their off-road habitat, opossums are too 
tough to kill easily (serious reports suggest that they are immune
to rattlesnake venom), and many a dog has mauled and left for 
dead an opossum that went on its way once the dog left. But on 
the road the opossum's toughness may work to its disadvantage. Becoming limp
and lying there with an open mouth after a near miss by the first 
car may serve to put off a dog or a coyote, but stands little chance 
against even a compcat cars. Such be behavior is fatal on the road,
were lying down quickly becomes a permanent condition. There
is often not enough time to play dead before becomming dead.
A nocturnal activity pattern and a fascinatoin with approacing lights
also serves to increase the road oposum population. Even without
cars, usually opossum live no more than two years, which is
males less than a year old are particularly common of it's size
on the road, by the virtue of its ability to adapt to nearly any surroundings
and a tendency to stand and fight when confronted.

Armadillos

Habits and Abundance:
   The armadillo is nearsighted, has poorly developed hearing, and 
moves about mostly at night - a set of characteristics guaranteeing
that relative to its numbers off the road, it will be better repre-
sented in the road fauna than any other mammal.  Nearsightedness 
works well in locating the worms, grubs, and caterpillars that
provide most of its food, but is of little help in helping the
armadillo look both ways before crossing the highway.  This 
creature also has a very fine sense of smell, but cars at 60 to 70
mph leave scent only behind them, never before.  The armadillo is
generally unaware that any vehicle is approaching until it is very
near, and then the animal's startled response is to leap straight
up into the air, usually to about bumper height.  Armadillos can
run with considerable speed, but they seldom make use of this
skill on the road.  A near miss by a passing pickup is likely to
call forth the other response to disturbance - to curl up in a
tight ball, with only the thickly plated back exposed.  While
this might puzzle a fox, it is no problem for an Audi.  When
severely hounded, the armadillo's alternative response is to dig
in - not useful on the interstate.  This unaggressive, bumbling 
creature has few natural enemies except motorized vehicles.

--
_______________________________________________________________________________
|Dr. Strangelove               |                                              |
|U.Wisconsin Milwaukee         | "Berlin is the testicles of the West.        |
|Major: Political Science      |  Each time I give them a yank, they holler." |