Famous for falling down, possums are what's up.
Otey the Swamp Possum is the Arkansas Travelers baseball team's new mascot -- likely the only possum in baseball, not counting those that forage under the bleachers.
The way possums get themselves smashed flat so often, they seem to have taken traffic safety advice from armadillos.
Arkansas will crown a new Possum Queen in Mount Ida in September. And some people have good things to say about possums in general, in spite of possums being long regarded among the ugliest boogers in the woods.
"To me, it's an amusing animal," says Rebecca McPeake, wildlife specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. "They really do play possum."
Faced with some danger that can't be scared off with a hiss, Mr. Possum falls over as if dead. He not only faints cold, he indelicately emits a putrid smell to enhance the effect of being a rotted revulsion.
Leave him alone -- and who wouldn't? -- he will be up and about his business. Laugh all you want at how dumb he is, Mr. Fox, but he fooled you.
"I still get a kick about teaching kids how to play possum," says Neil Curry, director of the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center in Little Rock.
They need to be taught, he finds, because "Many children do not know the expression, 'playing possum,' anymore. They have not had exposure to see these animals." In fact, "Most kids know more about exotic marsupials like kangaroos than our own native possum, something our AGFC [Arkansas Game and Fish Commission] nature centers are trying to change."
Possums have so many curious behaviors, it would be hard to list everything that people don't know about possums, such as:
• "They are one of nature's garbagemen in the recycle
dead things world," Curry says.
"Believe me, you'd really notice if the garbage crew was no longer around on your street or in this case, out of doors."
• Recycled possum is worth about a dollar a pelt. The state recorded 1,417 possum pelts during the 2012-13 fur-taking season. Nowhere close to raccoon, possum ranks as "one of the lowest-harvested animals," Curry says.
Possum fur "is great for creating fur hats, clothing or even teddy bears," according to Fursource.com.
• The state's only marsupial, Mother Possum carries her thumb-size young in a pouch like a kangaroo, and how cute is that?
True, they "get into garbage cans and eat pet food," McPeake says: "From personal experience, one got caught in our automatic dog feeder. Talk about a mess, and the opossum wasn't very happy, either."
Poor etiquette lands the possum on the Game and Fish Commission's list of sometimes "nuisance wildlife," along with the likes of attic-invading squirrels and phew-to-you skunks.
All these good and bad feelings about possums took to the field along with barefoot Otey the Swamp Possum this baseball season. The overalls-wearing possum replaced the Travelers' 14-year mascot, Shelley the donkey-or-horse-or-something.
(Named for the late groundskeeper O.C. Otey, the possum officially plays sidekick to the team's more heroic mascot, Ace, a horse in a red coat. But this is a possum story.)
Otey's introduction prompted a pouch-load of objections online and in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Not just a possum, the skeptics griped -- a hillbilly possum, such an embarrassment. The paper quoted one of the lesser rants: "Really? A possum? C'mon."
But the last of the season finds the fans buying Otey caps, jerseys and other souvenirs, Travelers spokesman Lance Restum says.
"It's really worked out well," he says. The ever-grinning possum "has been a lot of fun, and good luck for the team."
"Anything we change, there's going to be criticism," Restum says. "It probably would have caused more drama if we had changed hot dog suppliers." But Otey got a celebrity bump from Major Leaguer C.J. Wilson of the Los Angeles Angels.
Wilson played with the Travelers one night in July to help in his recovery from an ankle injury. The big-time pitcher did like uncounted numbers of Travelers fans and had his picture taken with Otey.
Otey nearly hit the big time himself, taking third place in this year's Mascot Mania voting for the best mascot in the Texas League, Restum says. The newcomer possum lost division first place to the well-established Springfield, Mo., Cardinals' mascot, Louie, a google-eyed redbird.
Nationally, the title of best mascot in minor league baseball went to the Clearwater, Fla., Threshers mascot, Phinley, a shark. But there's always next year.
Otey's safe at home with the Travelers, Restum says.
Unlike his teammates, the possum has no shot at moving up to the majors. But a solid career in AA baseball is hardly a flop.
Possum come a'knockin'
Virginia Colonist Capt. John Smith probably wrote the first description of what he called an "aposoum."
Smith made his observation 400 years ago thanks to the Indian princess, Pocahontas, for having saved his life. Even so, he couldn't find much good to say about the animal.
It "hath a head like a swine," he penned, "and a tail like a rat."
Mr. Possum once had a beautiful, fluffy tail, according to an American Indian legend. He bragged about it so much, the other animals couldn't stand to hear him. One night, they shaved his tail, and it stayed pink.
The possum hasn't changed at all since then. But times have changed a little in favor of this strange creature, Didelphis virginiana.
Mount Ida will crown its 19th Possum Queen at the annual Possum Picnic on Sept. 6, under the auspices of a group called Possums Unlimited.
"Possums Unlimited is an auxiliary fundraising organization for the Montgomery County Front Porch Stage," Jerry Babbitt, a Saturday night concert series spokesman, explains.
The big treat at the picnic will be chicken salad, he says, not possum.
"No possums have ever been harmed," he says, "much less eaten."
Possum in a stew
Whether or not fit for royalty, possum is a traditional Southern entree -- one traditionally fed full on apples and cornbread prior to becoming, himself, dinner.
Bird painter John James Audubon considered possum an "excellent substitute for roast pig," according to Keith and Teresa Sutton's book Duck Gumbo to Barbecued Coon: A Southern Game Cookbook (C&C Outdoors, 2001). Also, the book describes an annual feast put on by the Polk County Possum Club a century ago, attended by "captains and kings of industry."
Possum can be baked, roasted, stewed, casseroled, Crock-potted, served with sweet potatoes or slathered with sauerkraut. Online videos show how to pot a possum, generally the same as with a squirrel. The World Championship Squirrel Cook-off will be Sept. 13 in downtown Bentonville.
But one piece of advice is uniquely for possum cooks: Skin the conked-out critter right away. Do it before even thinking how to serve him up, is the caution in White Trash Cooking by Ernest Matthew Mickler (Ten Speed Press, 1986). Otherwise, Mr. Possum is going to be "slipping right from under your nose," having played his signature trick.
"All he was doing was playing possum."
Possum pizza
Possum-watching Arkansans can spot the creature almost anywhere -- in the woods, the backyard, the ballpark, and mostly on the road.
Not playing possum: squashed. Eww! Another possum run over. Pow! Possum pizza.
What's going on here?
"Their frequency of being roadkill is probably due to their slow walk and inability to flee quickly from an approaching vehicle," McPeake says. "They may also be attracted to carrion from roadkill, which makes them even more vulnerable."
"They are largely nocturnal animals, so they are harder to see on darkened roadways," Curry says. Also, the possum's "slow-witted nature" makes for a short life.
The way possums get themselves smashed flat so often, they seem to have taken traffic safety advice from armadillos.
Evidence is gathering that possums might be brighter than they let on. For example, possums seem to bumble around with no idea where to go next -- like, get off the road. But National Wildlife magazine cites research that possums will eat practically anything, so anywhere suits. Possums don't plan their next move.
Curry tells why he doubts that possums think much at all.
"During college as a zoology student years ago we had to collect mammals," he says. "One night I had a string of large rat traps set by a roadside dump. The first trap I checked had a young opossum caught by one toe. Most other animals would have been smart enough to pull out of the trap.
"The next trap had another opossum just sitting beside it!"
The lesson might be that possums don't play possum. They really mean it.
Style on 08/26/2014