Category: Mammals
Also known as the Eurasian wild pig, these versatile omnivores are native to Eurasia, North Africa and the Greater Sunda Islands. Humans, however, have helped to spread them well beyond their native lands, and they are now one of the widest ranging mammals in the world. They live in matriarchal societies comprised of genetically related females and their young (male and female) - adult males are generally solitary outside of breeding seasons. They are the ancestor of most domestic pigs.
The Opossum Ain’t Playing
Many people associate playing dead with the opossum - that’s where the term “playing opossum” comes from, after all. But something you might not know is that when an opossum feigns death, it really goes all out! Not content with merely closing its eyes and laying down, the opossum begins drooling profusely as if ill or even rabid, releases a putrid, greenish fluid from its anal glands that makes it smell like a decaying corpse, and after losing consciousness may even mimic rigor mortis! This is quite the elaborate routine, but it isn’t conscious: when an opossum plays dead, it has actually gone into shock due to stress.
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