I feel that my struggle in finding a photo for this post speaks volumes about my struggles with the fact that an opossum has moved in under our back shed, the one by the woods and the giant oak tree that dropped approximately 1 million acorns this fall. Some of the photographs make the opossum look cute and sweet; others make the opossum look mean and scary. Of course, I deeply understand that this animal is just a complex creature like the rest of us–sometimes cute and cuddly, sometimes not so much.

I have been hearing more and more about opossums because their numbers are on the rise here in Maine, and according to the Bangor Daily News, are suddenly everywhere this fall. About a month ago, Ron said he heard a sort of crying from a creature under our shed while he was out working in the burn pile one night. The interesting thing is that the shed is in a fenced area. We have never had an animal come through the fence, so we were surprised that something had moved in. We worried about it for a bit but kept a close eye and never saw anything.

Then, it snowed, and the evidence was upon us. I discovered the little tracks and hoped at first they were tracks from a larger squirrel, maybe, but then I saw the pattern of walking–and I knew this was no squirrel. I didn’t know what, but I knew we had an issue.

I reported said issue to Ron, who thinks I overreact about any potential threat to our chickens. He said he thought it was the neighbor’s cat hunting for mice. I had my doubts because I thought there was evidence of digging in the snow. I tried to study the tracks, but they were a little messy, making it difficult to discern very much.

A few days later, in fresh snow, I found a good track. I took a picture and took it to Ron. He said he was just reading the article I linked above in the newspaper about opossums moving in. Goggling the tracks confirmed the suspicion. It looks like we have a neighbor named opossum.

Is this little neighbor friend or foe? It’s hard to say, but Ron and I are both believers in giving respect and space to wildlife when possible. Apparently, opossums are great to have around for keeping away rats and mice and are generally harmless, slow, peaceful creatures, despite their reputation that they can be aggressive. However, over the years, I have seen a few posts about opossums killing and eating chickens.

Once we confirmed our opossum, I started reading everything I could about interactions between chickens and opossums. The vast majority of the stories are that the opossums coexisted peacefully with the chickens and always kept their distance, but every now and then, there is a story of murder that raises concerns for sure.

As near as I can tell, if you just make sure the opossum does not get into your coop, you are fine. This makes me hopeful because we have a pretty secure coop, and the shed is at least a little distance from the coop. Still, I worry. What if it gets in?

We’ll see how it goes. Please send good opossum vibes our way. Oh, and if you have a story, please share it.

photo credit: Jennifer Uppendahl, Unsplash