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Do possums climb trees or live in trees?

While possums may be a very ugly animal, they are also one that is quite creative and innovative when it comes to survival. These animals use the most unusual technique to fend off predators. When confronted by an animal like a coyote or a bear, the response of the possum is to play dead. The animal will literally lay down, upside down, and keep as still as one can imagine. It will then release often odor that makes it seem like the animal has been dead for quite some time and may be even sour to eat. The predator then turns away and leaves the possum alone, fooled and hungry.



It is a very unique process that the possum is able to use for survival, but is not the only one that is quite unusual in terms of what one would consider for this animal. Despite being in the same family as the raccoon, an animal that does not really have the ability to climb, possums are a mammal that have exceptional ability to get up trees. This lets you know that not only can they climb trees, that they will actually live in them at times.

A possum is not a burrowing animal. While they will dig holes to get under fences and get into your yard to try to find food, they do not do so to create a residence for themselves. Instead they rely on other forms of shelter that are naturally occurring for them to be able to have a place to live. This is often found in hollowed out trees or logs, which provide the perfect kind of shelter for them.

While the possum would prefer to stay closer to the ground, there are many instances where this animal has climbed a tree and gotten into a series of branches that are stable enough to hold it, while also providing the kind of protection that is needed from predators.

The hardest challenge for the possum is the fact that these are nocturnal animals. Because of their extremely poor eyesight is necessary for them to hunt exclusively at nighttime. Because they cannot see in the day they would be a sitting duck to virtually any predator out there if they were out during the daylight. This is why it is imperative that they find locations to sleep that offer them the kind of protection and camouflage that would not allow potential predators to know they were there.

In a tree, they not only have protection from the vast majority of predators who would be underneath them, but they also increase their ability to sense what is going on around them by being above it all. It increases their adaptability to the environment they are in by affording them a greater view of what is happening around them.

Many trees also have spots where other animals had dug out a hole within them and this can be the perfect location for a possum to sleep as well. Read more: Opossum Control, How to Get Rid of Opossums, Opossum Feces.


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