{"id":1320,"date":"2011-11-20T02:55:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-20T02:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2011-11-20T15:16:32","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T15:16:32","slug":"animals-along-bolin-creek-by-mary-sonis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/20\/animals-along-bolin-creek-by-mary-sonis\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall wildlife along Bolin Creek by Mary Sonis"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I have been surprised with the animals that just allow you to walk right up to them.\u00a0 The rut is about over,\u00a0 but this young buck doesn’t seem to realize that he is supposed to be skittish.\u00a0 Of course this is not “Big Daddy”..but I was still rather amused by his boldness.\u00a0 It just makes my job easier.
\n\"\"<\/a>And here we have the Virginia Opossum. People are never very excited about Opossum ..but they are fascinating creatures. This particular female has discovered our birdfeeder. She visits nightly to collect the spilled bird seed,\u00a0 and is very relaxed about our presence on the scene. Quite the wide mouthed yawn. If you disturb or corner an Opossum,\u00a0 they stand with their mouth agape and show you their fifty teeth. They never attack, unless you actually try to pick them up..and even then ,\u00a0 they are likely to collapse and simply “play possum”\u00a0 The playing possum might be involuntary…a neurological response to stress…but it serves the possum fairly well.\u00a0\u00a0 Often a dog will give up on prey that appears to be dead. The opossum adds to the act by releasing a slightly foul smelling musk from its anal glands. These peaceful creatures are North America’s only Marsupial.\u00a0 The female opossum has a placenta that is not well developed. Her multiple young are born after about a fourteen day gestation. Each little opossum is about the size of a raisin,\u00a0 and is still in an embryonic state. The mother licks her abdomen to slick the fur,\u00a0 and each tiny Opossum must crawl to her pouch (marsupium) and latch on to one of her 13 teats. Some of them never complete the crawl.\u00a0 For the next 2 months ,\u00a0 the youngsters stay in the pouch.\u00a0 Eventually they climb out and ride around on their mother’s back.
\n\"\"<\/a>Opossums are not fast, their hearing isn’t acute, and their vision is ordinary. They are however,\u00a0 superb climbers. The tail is not truly prehensile. It is not strong enough to hold up an adult animal, but it is used as an extra limb … or brace while climbing.
\n\"\"<\/a>Like us, Opossums are true omnivores,\u00a0 and will eat almost anything .\u00a0 Much of their diet is scavenged. They will eat carrion , and anything else that they happen to find. Sadly, many die on roads eating roadkill.\u00a0 The habit of standing still when confronted is\u00a0 one of the main reasons that they perish on the road.
\n\"\"<\/a>Did I mention that Opossums don’t have a lot of sense? They toddle through life taking little notice of the possible dangers around them.\u00a0 Dogs kill Opossums easily. They also fall prey to Owls, Fox,\u00a0 and Coyotes.\u00a0 Fortunately… we are a friendly group around here!\u00a0 Here’s something else that serves the Opossum well. The are naturally resistant to snake venom,\u00a0 and rarely carry rabies. Their body temperature is too low for the rabies virus to thrive.
\n\"\"<\/a>Finally, take a look at that hind foot. She has an opposable digit on her paw. Great for climbing trees. That thumb- like digit never has a toenail. The life expectancy of a wild Opossum is estimated to be two or three years. Poor little creature just gets tangled up with too many cars and predators.
\n\"\"<\/a>When I first saw this on a tree trunk in the distance..I thought it was some kind of odd tree fungus…
\n\"\"<\/a>But look at that..an Eastern Red Bat. The Red bat was doing exactly what they do during the day,\u00a0 resting on a tree. This is our most common forest bat in North America. They usually rest hanging higher up in trees..and look like leaves dangling. This one chose to roost lower on the tree trunk.\u00a0 She did not fly off when I approached, so I had plenty of time to observe her. After I left, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
\n\"\"<\/a>So long from the Bolin Creek forest.<\/p>\n

–Mary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I have been surprised with the animals that just allow you to walk right up to them.\u00a0 The rut is about over,\u00a0 but this young buck doesn’t seem to realize that he is supposed to be skittish.\u00a0 Of course this is not “Big Daddy”..but I was still rather amused by his boldness.\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,135],"tags":[210,204],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bolin-creek","category-bolin-creek-wildlife","tag-bolin-creek-wildlife","tag-bolin-forest"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1328,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320\/revisions\/1328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bolincreek.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=1320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}