Why Opossums Play Dead – Humane Wildlife Removal

The Reasons Why Opossums Play Dead

Opossums are the only marsupial native to North America, and it’s because of these small mammals that we have the expression “playing possum”.

What Does It Involve?

Opossums dropping dead has a few different aspects to it.

The first is that they become immobile and limp. They lose control of their muscles and just topple over as if they were really corpses.
The second involves discharging their bowels. This aspect extends from the first. Since they have no control over their muscles, they just let go and make a mess.

The third is drooling. When they topple over, their mouth is probably going to be open, so saliva begins pouring out.
The fourth is their tongue sticking out. Because they’ve fallen down on the ground and are limp, their tongue has nothing keeping it in place, so it’ll naturally stick out.
The last is that they stop breathing. Not really of course, because then they’d be dead. But their breathing comes close to halting, which gives them the illusion of being dead.

Why Do They Do It?

You’ve seen what happens to opossums when they die, and it’s disgusting, isn’t it? Which is why you probably don’t want to go near the limp, drooling, self-soiled body of an animal that might be dead. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why opossums play dead.

Most animals, much like people, want to avoid nasty corpses because they carry diseases and are filthy. By eating the corpse, an animal runs the risk of getting sick and dying, so most will choose to turn the other way – a fact that the opossum is counting on. By playing dead, the opossum’s predators will think that it carries a disease and will naturally avoid it to go search for other prey, thus saving the opossum’s life.

That’s why playing dead is just another defense mechanism for the opossum. Yet the most interesting fact about playing dead is that opossums have no control over it. That’s right, the animals known for “playing possum” can’t decide when to play dead. Instead, this naturally happens whenever they get very frightened, and their brains automatically send them into a coma-like state for up to a few hours.

Opossums may involuntarily play dead by going limp, beginning to drool, and defecating themselves as a defense mechanism, but this doesn’t always lead to a happy ending. They might fall into the catatonic state at the wrong time, leading to plenty of harm or even death.