Tell us something we don’t know.

[MossRoad]

Possums are just starting to work their way into the southern part of the state. I've never seen a live one, but occasionally see road kill on the side of the road while downstate at my mother's house. As I drive past I always wonder; are they dead, or just "playing possum?"

I'll see myself out now.

We see dead possums and raccoons all over the place. Interesting that as we go visit one of our kids in Oklahoma, the road kill switches to armadillos.

The kids play dillo no dillo when driving. If you see road kill, you call out dillo or no dillo, then see if you're right when you get up to it.

 

[/pine]

FWIW...A dead armadillo on the side of road is known as a "possum on the half shell"

 

[BravoXray]

What dark matter is.

 

[randyjs]

I was always told that if you get lost in the woods to look for a possum and follow it, most likely he is heading for the highway.

 

[MossRoad]

I was always told that if you get lost in the woods to look for a possum and follow it, most likely he is heading for the highway.

Ooooo that's bad.

 

[npalen]

I was always told that if you get lost in the woods to look for a possum and follow it, most likely he is heading for the highway.

It depends a lot on the possum as some are inclined to seek out interstates so you might be in for a long walk.

 

[JethroB]

It depends a lot on the possum as some are inclined to seek out interstates so you might be in for a long walk.

And some (well one) like to come up on my porch at night and scare the bejezus out of me.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

"There are deep psychological reasons why humans find babies of all species so cute. Scientists believe that the powerful nurturing instinct we have for our own children spills over into an affection for anything that even loosely resembles them."
...bbcearth

 

[MossRoad]

When I was a little kid, we found some poor little dog that was pretty badly mauled. My mom called the humane society to come and get the poor thing. When they arrived to get the dog and were putting it in the back of the truck, I saw a possum in there. I asked what they were going to do with it? She said probably take it back and release it somewhere. I asked if she wanted to release it here? My mom had no objections and the lady was pretty happy to be rid of it. So she put a loop stick around it's neck, pulled it tight, and dragged it out of the cage and set it in the yard. It laid there in its side with its mouth hanging open, eyes glazed, both left legs up in the air. I yelled "YOU KILLED IT!"

She then explained to me that it was just playing possum.

"I think you KILLED IT!" and I started crying.

My mom told me to calm down and the lady started laughing at me. She said look, it's still breathing. It's just playing dead. They do that hoping you'll go away. So go away over by the house and watch.

So we all went over to the house, and sure enough, it came back from the dead, slowly rolled onto its belly, looked around, got up, and trotted off into the woods.

 

[rontaki]

"There are deep psychological reasons why humans find babies of all species so cute. Scientists believe that the powerful nurturing instinct we have for our own children spills over into an affection for anything that even loosely resembles them."
...bbcearth

I've read that it has to do with the size of the eyes relative to the face. Big eyes = cute and lovable.
Most babies of whatever species have eyes disproportionately larger relative to their adult eye/face size.

Look at comic characters, especially Disney. Many illustrations use the big eye effect.