WHY DO POSSUMS PLAY DEAD WHEN CONFRONTED?
When confronted with a predator, possums have been known to get aggressive, grin their teeth, and look scary by all accounts. However, more often than not, they are overpowered.
Possums, when scared by a predator or even attacked by one will go limp. Their eyes close and they, by all accounts, appear to be dead.
Whilst it appears to be a great defense mechanism (in the fact that attackers are somewhat confused, and most predators don’t want to eat something that is already dead, which in turn allows the possum to escape), it’s not actually something the possum means to do, “playing possum” isn’t a play here at all, it’s completely unintentional.
Furthermore, according to scientists the possums enter a catatonic-like state, and are completely immobile for a short space of time (which can be up to four hours).
Despite the phrase mainly being associated with possums, they aren’t the only one to ‘play dead’ when threatened. Funnily enough the opossum (FYI not the same animal… I checked…) is actually slightly better at playing dead than the possum.
According to the National Geo site, when the opossum is playing dead it “opens its mouth, sticks out its tongue, empties its bowels, and excretes foul-smelling fluids to convince a predator it’s past the expiration date.” Great acting eh?!
So I suppose, for most creatures in the animal kingdom, it probably pays to be quite a good actor.