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Come back to this page each day to read another entry from Frederick R. Gehlbach's almanac of suburban natural and unnatural history, "Messages from the Wild," which chronicles the world of a forested ravine in central Texas.
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I forgot to close the garage door last night, and this morning a sleepy, black-haired opossum peers up from the bottom of my garbage can. Is my dog sympathetic to an unusual compatriot, or was she just sleeping that soundly? Holding the possum by its prehensile tail, I put it in a tree so the Labrador retriever won't pester it. I know possums are good climbers, because they take up temporary residence in natural tree cavities and screech owl nest boxes, first depredating any eggs and nestlings. I used to see only gray-haired Virginia opossums, but increasing numbers of a black-haired variety arrived during the 1990s. Are they common (tropical) opossums, who've joined the northward push of tropical butterflies, birds, and armadillos? |
Frederick R. Gehlbach is Professor Emeritus of Biology and Environmental Studies at Baylor University. His ecological studies have taken him from New Zealand to Slovakia and, in the Americas, from Alaska and Newfoundland to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. His research interests include the life-history strategies of small owls, small burrowing snakes and urban wildlife ecology.
From MESSAGES FROM THE WILD: AN ALMANAC OF SUBURBAN NATURAL AND UNNATURAL HISTORY by Frederick R. Gehlbach, Copyright © 2002. Courtesy of the University of Texas Press.
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