So your joke about people driving them to Arizona might actually have a grain of truth to it! All Rights Reserved. OK, I made that stuff up. Journal of Mammalogy I live about 13 miles north of downtown phoenix..in a regular neighborhood.. No clue where these things came from, or what they were. a mammal image library that contains many exceptional photographs of common This item is part of JSTOR collection
pic.twitter.com/BGVJt6XoQi. Why Don’t Cactus Wrens Impale Themselves? They look quite innocent, but pack a very powerful bite… yikes. I think it is very need. Don't already have an Oxford Academic account? In recent times, I live off bell and the i17 I have a picture of a opossum on our wall in the back. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. I lived in the Phoenix area more than half of my life. Arizona’s opossum population mostly confines itself to the area from Tucson south to the border. conservation, and communication among scientists and the general public. Weight for males ranges from 1.7 to 14 lb and for females from 11 ounces to 8.2 lb. Q: My wife swears she saw an opossum the other night while walking the dog in our Mesa neighborhood. Raymond J. Hock Arctic Health Research Center, U. S. Public Health Service, Box 960, Anchorage, Alaska. The only things I like about opossums are the names of all the different types—Central American wooly opossum, Alston’s mouse opossum, Virginia opossum and my favorite — Gray’s four-eyed opossum.
They are one of the world’s most variably sized mammals, since a large male from northern North America weighs about 20 times as much as a small female from the tropics. Since opossums are nocturnal, maybe all you will see are their tracks. According to an article in the Journal of Mammology (November, 1952), an adult female opossum was captured (December, 1949) at the Rincon Stock Farm on Fort Lowell Road in Tucson. Arizona .
Possums are found in Australia and New Guinea. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo, JPASS®, Artstor®, Reveal Digital™ and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. Whatever, they are an invasive species up here. Opossums are common in the eastern US but are rare in the west. This opossum found itself in a bad spot today, specifically I-10 WB near Warner Rd. and by did they scatter, right up a huge pinetree. Didelphis virginiana has been present in southern Arizona owing to range expansion by the Mexican subspecies (D. v. californica) and anthropogenic introductions of the eastern subspecies (D. v. virginiana). I could see how they’d be easily mistaken for an opossum. Get Quotes & Book Instantly. The TEMPE, AZ — The Department of Public Safety says troopers rescued an opossum found on the side of the freeway Tuesday in Tempe. The opossum population in Arizona is confined mostly to the southern part of the state near Tucson towards the Mexican border, so you shouldn’t have a problem with them in the Phoenix metro area. This is the only species of marsupials that occurs in the US. Troopers took it to a wildlife center for further care, according to DPS. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. VIRGINIA OPOSSUM (DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA VIRGINIANA) FROM YAVAPAI COUNTY, ARIZONA R. Nathan Gwinn1,2, Geoffrey H. Palmer1, and John L. Koprowski1 ABSTRACT.—The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is the only marsupial native to the United States. I think opossums are sort of creepy. This article is also available for rental through DeepDyve. Anyway, researchers used to think our opossums were ordinary opossums somehow transplanted from the East. Opossums have 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal, and opposable, clawless thumbs on their rear limbs. Strangely enough, the so-called Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) occurs in Tucson and other parts of Arizona. I have seen many skunks in the Rio Verde area down by the river, eagles too , but never an opossom. It is very shy and coms at Night. The paper’s abstract reads: The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is the only marsupial native to the United States. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions
In Central America and parts of southern Mexico, Opossum occasionally plays the role of a trickster or an animal hero who escapes from danger by using his wits. Anthony (1928) lists its distribution as follows: "Hudson Valley to northern Texas and almost to the Gulf Coast, west to the Great Lakes."
Yes, it definitely was an opossum.
Why do you think some parts of the state are uninhabited? THE OPOSSUM IN ARIZONA BY RAYMOND J. HOCK It is a well-known fact that the Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana vir-giniana Kerr, has been rapidly extending its range for some time. institution, Login via your Arizona law prohibits all species of the genus Didelphis which consists of "American Opossums," of which all are cat-sized, and the most common member is the Virginia opossum, which is native to North America. ©2000-2020 ITHAKA. Mexican opossums have longer, darker tails than common opossums, in case you were wondering.
All rights reserved. I used to see them in N.J. years ago.. he was really cute.. and he was just trying to scoot across the street that I was driving down. In the course of looking stuff up, I also came across some recipes for cooking opossum. It’s just a cool name.
In some South American tribes, Opossum plays a more important mythological role as the Fire-Bringer.”. Rex Allen: A Cross-Eyed Hero from Willcox, Find a Famous Writer and Explorer’s Historic Mountain Retreat in Greer, Thousands of Mexican Free-Tail Bats Make Phoenix Tunnel Their Summer Home, The Tucson Artifacts are the Southwest’s Greatest Hoax.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide, This PDF is available to Subscribers Only. Google Scholar. "She was tired and hungry, so she ate a good holiday meal and took a long nap.".
Follow her on Twitter @brieannafrank. There are opossums in Arizona, although it is highly unlikely that the missus saw one in Mesa. Humans aren't the only travelers troopers are looking out for this holiday season! I never saw any opossums, but I do believe they are there. Society accomplishes this through annual meetings, international conferences, The Virginia opossum has a lifespan in the wild of only about two years. Its brain is one-fifth the size of a raccoon’s. Search for other works by this author on: You do not currently have access to this article. Opossums are mainly nocturnal and omnivorous. I thought it might be more interesting than the real answer, which is: Sort of. The following May, an adult male was found about four miles from the Farm.
(Who would drive an opossum to Arizona?) Opossum Care and Rescue (OCAR) has 14,973 members. They have a special lethal toxin neutralizing factor in their blood that instantly neutralizes the worst snake venom (and bees and scorpions). I did opposum rescue when I lived in San Diego. I had a teacher once who looked like an opossum.
There doesn't appear to be any other listing for other opossum species making non-Didelphis species legal. Support local journalism. A: Are there opossums in Arizona? Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Marsupials nurse their young in pouches. Has anyone seen an opossum near Tucson? DPS says they used a traffic break to safely secure the opossum. Perhaps surprisingly for such a widespread and successful species, the Virginia opossum has one of the lowest encephalization quotients of any marsupial. You could not be signed in. The American Society of Mammalogists was founded in 1919 and is dedicated to No "possums" live in Arizona but the Virginia Opossum's range has extended as far as there. The female opossum was found along the busy freeway by DPS troopers, who took her to the wildlife organization in Scottsdale. Selection for increased cranial capacity in small mammals during a century of urbanization, Anthropogenic disturbance and chimpanzee (, Activity overlap of carnivores, their potential wild prey, and temporal segregation, with livestock in a Biosphere Reserve in the Chihuahuan Desert, Annual board meeting and awards announcement American Society of Mammalogists, Genetic diversity and conservation of the endemic tuco-tuco, About the American Society of Mammalogists, Receive exclusive offers and updates from Oxford Academic, Copyright © 2020 American Society of Mammalogists.