Here's a photo of something pretty amazing, but non-political.

[MineralMan]

In it, an opossum is pulling ticks off a deer's face. 'Possums eat ticks, but I've never seen one helping another species by eating them off the other animal. I wonder how common this is and how the deer figured out that the opossum could help. Amazing!

[Wounded Bear]

1. Interspecies cooperation like that is actually fairly common...

Yeah, I watch a lot of nature documentaries.

[MineralMan]

2. I had never heard of this one, though.

I see a lot of opossums, and have even hand-fed them just outside of my door, but I've never even heard of deer or other animals coming to them for tick removal. Seems amazing to me that the two species would have figured this out.

[Wounded Bear]

4. Nature does seem to find a way...nt

[evilhime]

43. May I share this on FB to my people?

[Blue_true]

66. I was watching a Nature Channel show about dolphins hunting for sardines.

Sea birds follow the Dolphins, even as the fish swim hundreds of miles to feeding grounds. Other animals such as sharks and whales also moved toward the feeding ground by instinct, they rely on the dolphins to seperate small schools of sardines that can be fed upon, even though about half of the sardine seperated off survive and go on their way. It was an amazing show to watch.

[Mike 03]

3. "how the deer figured out that the opossum could help"

Utterly fascinating. I'd love to know too. I absolutely love learning about things like this.

[MineralMan]

7. Looking again at the photo, it looks like someone

is putting food on that round concrete stepping stone. That would attract the deer, as well as the opossum, since they're omnivores. The deer has ticks, which would also attract the opossum. Since an opossum isn't a deer predator, the deer wasn't alarmed the first time it encountered it. So the opossum grabbed a tick, which the deer doesn't mind at all.

That's my guess about how the two learned about the mutual benefits.

[IndyOp]

5. Crocodiles let Egyptian plover birds pick leeches off their gums

I think the croc-plover species relationship is equally odd and interesting - the bird is in the crocs mouth

https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/nature/amazing-symbiotic-animal-relationships

[MineralMan]

6. Cool Photos!

[Hekate]

8. Those two are fairly well known, but I've never seen pics. The deer/possum one is new to me.

All amazing.

[erronis]

29. Not sure I could hold still to have some bird hopping around in my ear...

[IndyOp]

33. Maybe rhino skin is so think they don't notice, as much...?

In any case, all I can think about is the poor bird - it must stink all to high heaven inside that ear.

[Hekate]

9. That's fascinating. Thanks for a brand-new wildlife lesson.

[MineralMan]

15. I love that kind of stuff!

[iscooterliberally]

10. I met a wild opossum early the other morning.

I was out walking my old dog Samson. He's about 14 so we go slow and just mosey on down the road. One of my cats was tagging along since the sun wasn't even up yet and there wasn't much traffic. I have another small female cat that likes to join us sometimes too. She usually comes racing out of the shadows and then does figure eights between my legs. I thought it was her, because I saw this little shadow come tearing across the street towards us. It ran right up into my flashlight and sat there between my dog and cat. Everyone just stopped and looked at each other. The little opossum caught the scent of my dog after a few seconds and took off back across the street. It was a strange encounter to say the least. Opossums are quite common in south Florida.

[fleur-de-lisa]

12. I saw a possum on my roof early yesterday morning.

The little bastard hangs around my house because he likes cat food. There is a feral cat colony that lives on my property and I feed them twice a day.

I have seen the possum climb a tree in my back yard, from which he can easily climb onto the second floor roof.

Now I think he found a way to get into my attic. Last night I heard what sounded like a cat running across the attic floor, directly above my bedroom. The cats were all accounted for, so I think the possum goes in the attic to stay warm at night.

[iscooterliberally]

14. They sure do like cat food!

I opened my front door the other day and found one eating the food that I leave out for a neighborhood stray. It might have even been the same little one that came up to us on our walk.

[LeftInTX]

41. I don't know what possums sound like in attics, but do you think it could be a raccoon?

I've got plenty of both in my yard.

https://www.raccoonatticguide.com/noises.html


http://www.animalatticpest.com/noises.html

Raccoons can be very noisy. We had a hinged flap on our chimney, to prevent rats from getting in the house. One night I heard, "bang, bang". I knew it was raccoons opening and closing the flap. I could just imagine them getting down the chimney and into the home. The next day, we completely sealed that flap. (I have no need for a fireplace in San Antonio.)

Raccoons also love cat food.

[fleur-de-lisa]

42. It's possible, but I have never seen a racoon in my neighborhood.

I see the possum 3 or 4 times a week. On my back porch eating cat food, climbing a tree in the backyard, and now on the roof.

[LeftInTX]

51. You can check our property for raccoon latrines.

They create their own communal toilets. For some reason they decided that a small utility post was their hangout, so it was easy to spot.

They also will use roofs as a communal latrine. Every time we clean the roof/gutters, we have to remove raccoon poop.

Possums don't do this.

[fleur-de-lisa]

52. I was in a band in college . . . we were called the Communal Raccoon Latrines.

[LeftInTX]

54. Oh my!!!!!

[Captain Zero]

69. better fix where they are getting in the attic because

if you have squirrels around they will get in too. They do like the warmth in winter, but they don't pay for the damage they can do and they don't pay your heating bill.

[MineralMan]

17. We used to have possums come to the back door of our house for

handouts. The cats weren't bothered. In fact, they'd walk right up to them and sniff noses with them. We had raccoons that visited our back door, too. I gave them peanuts in the shell, and some of them would walk up and take them from my hand with their front paws. No conflicts there. One of our cats sometimes did the nose sniff thing with them, too.

The 'possums were shy, but the raccoons made themselves right at home. I came out of the bedroom one evening, and one of the female raccoons was having a nap on our couch. We had a big cat flap at the front of the house, so it apparently decided to come in out of the cold for a while. Anyhow, it saw me and jumped down off the couch and went back out through the cat flap.

We never had any problems with any of the critters.

[iscooterliberally]

21. It really is amazing how far apart we live and yet we have the same species of animals in our yards.

Raccoons and opossums are everywhere it seems. We have a cat flap at the back of our house. We haven't had any wild critters come in that we know of. We did have this big black stray cat come in. He likes to roll around on the cat tree in our living room. It's covered in catnip. The other cats don't like him because he's a bit of a bully. We feel bad because he's friendly to people but no one knows where he came from or if he has a home. Some of the neighbors feed him too.

[PatrickforO]

11. Funny how nature is organized for species to help one another.

I've seen pictures of birds, for instance, on giraffes, zebras, horses, rhinos and other large animals, picking off ticks and other insects.

I mean, even at a microscopic level, think of the pro-biotic bacteria in your gut. You have to have this bacteria, which eat stuff that can make you sick or even die.

And cats. We have five cats, and they habitually groom each other.

We are the only species that exploits rather than helps. Because we have not thought through, as a species, what our relationship with other life should be. It is the old Calvinistic blasphemy of human against nature, rather than the much, much wiser human with nature.

[MineralMan]

13. Yeah, except that your feeding five cats, so there is that symbiotic thing there...

I'll bet you pet those cats, too, which they seem to enjoy.

[cwydro]

16. I love possums.

Great critters.

[MineralMan]

18. I do too.

They're peaceful animals, too. I've never heard of anyone getting bitten by one. They will hiss at you if you come up on them unexpectedly, but they don't seem to want to bite. I've scritched a few on the head, actually.

[cwydro]

20. Yeah, in an outbuilding on my farm, I used to have a TV and hang out in the summer.

At night, they’d come in and look around, so I started putting food out. Two came at first, then they brought the whole family.

I loved it.

Apparently, they don’t get rabies either. Always a plus!

[calimary]

28. We used to do that with the raccoons in the neighborhood.

Started with one. She (I assume female, never got close enough to check) soon returned with two smaller ones. They’d eat the leftover cat food when we let our cats out most of the day. We don’t anymore. But they’d avail themselves of whatever was left over in the cat dish.

Eventually, they got used to us watching them. Sometimes we’d open the top of the French door and watch from there. And not long afterwards, if we sat out on the back steps silently and held a hand out with kibble, they’d approach. And they’d slowly take the kibble. With these long bony “fingers”. And they’d go to the cat’s water bowl and wash the kibble before eating it. Raccoon behavior. Truly fascinating.

Those long thin bony fingers. Amazing. Very soft. The touch is very soft. I experienced it myself. Just amazing.

When you present to animals as non-threatening, really jaw-dropping things can happen.

[cwydro]

56. So true.

Much easier to trust than humans lol.

[fleur-de-lisa]

45. I have one I will gladly send to you.

He knocks over plants on my back porch and the bowls of food for my feral cat colony. The water bowl too.

And he stinks. I can always tell when he has recently been on my porch eating cat food. A stench like burnt garbage (or so I imagine) lingers when he has been there. I have never actually burned garbage, so this is a guess on my part.

[panader0]

48. I have javelina--quite a few. They stink a lot.

And they're definitely not friendly.

[fleur-de-lisa]

49. I've never seen one. Just googled them.

Although they are certainly not cute and cuddly, javelinas are not nearly as ugly as possums!

[panader0]

53. The big males can get close to 90 lbs.

They are surprisingly fast and their teeth are like razors.
I took my friend's nearly dead dog, a 120 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback,
to the vet once for 130 stitches. When I go out in the dark morning
for firewood, I am careful. They are very protective of their young.

[Blue_true]

67. Javelinas are the wild hogs of the desert southwest. From what I gained from business

associates that live in those places, you don't want to mess around with them, they are vicious.

[TidalWave46]

19. The only good opossum is a......

Well, you have changed my thoughts on opossums.

[mjvpi]

22. See, there's hope.

Someday we’ll be able to work with Republicans again.

[erronis]

32. Not sure about that. (r)epuglicons are evil incarnate. Don't trust them now, or ever.

After this current fiasco they'll lay low for 5-10 years and then come back to try and poison democracy, again.

Also beware of them just changing names, putting on a sheep jacket.

[leftyladyfrommo]

23. Never hurt an opossum. They are our friends. nt

[MineralMan]

25. Oh, I never would.

They're one of my favorite critters. Unappreciated, too.

[leftyladyfrommo]

30. That wasn't aimed at you. Just general info.

We have lots of possums here in Missouri.

They can only see a few inches so they get hit by cars. Poor little guys.

[MineralMan]

31. Oh, I know.

They're slow-moving, slow to react, and slow-thinking. Still, they have spread over the entire United States, so they have something working for them. They're a very successful animal, overall.

[leftyladyfrommo]

36. They don't get rabies.

Their body temperature is too low and rabies can't develop. I think that's so interesting.

[MineralMan]

37. That's really interesting.

Fascinating critters. I used to get a kick out of seeing a momma 'possum waddling along with her babies on her back.

[LeftInTX]

44. They get a bad rap down here, cuz they hiss but they are harmless

I assume they hiss at people because they are slower moving.

The more dangerous urban dweller is the raccoon.

[Beringia]

24. My guess

The deer was resting and the opossum came around and sniffed out the deer and the deer started feeling safe, and then the opossum did some grooming or picking off ticks or other things.

The opossum has to know what to do too.

[LiberalLovinLug]

26. Oh... I thought that was Jeff Van Drew with Donald Trump

[erronis]

34. That would probably be a picture of a sychophant cleaning dump's anus.

[Hortensis]

27. That's great!

My sister's guest room high in the Sierra Nevada looked out into a little clearing at a feeder she maintained for wildlife. We see on documentaries how animals show themselves to each other but not to the us, and that's what I watched secretly out that window at night: several different creatures coming to the little clearing, 4 deer coming forward in turns, raccoon or possums -- and her own cat and dogs sitting quietly around the edge watching the nightly gathering on "their" territory the rest of the time. I just realized I no longer remember just which critters were there. There was at least one other kind, but this post reminded me immediately of a fairly large waddling one, a possum?, going up to a deer and sniffing at its nose held down for the interaction before heading off.

[Vinca]

35. I love possums. They also enjoy dining on mice. We've noticed a decrease in both ticks and mice

since possums moved into the yard. Our house is from the late 1700's and has nooks and crannies for creatures to occasionally get in the basement. One day my husband went down to the cellar for something and found the possum we named Ollie sitting on a heating duct. I haven't seen Ollie yet this winter (they usually show up at the bird feeder) and I'm hoping he's still around.

[MineralMan]

38. They sometimes sleep in the window wells of our basement windows.

I guess enough heat comes out of them to keep them more cozy in really cold weather.

[LeftInTX]

46. We've got lots of possums, raccoons, rats and mice

I didn't know possums could eat mice. (Mainly because they are slow) I assume raccoons do.

So far neither has controlled rats or mice.

We don't have large snakes, bobcats or coyotes which are probably their best predators.

[Pepsidog]

39. Cool but opossums skeeze me out.

[MineralMan]

40. Yeah, they have that effect on a lot of people.

Once you get to know them, though, they sort of grow on you. They're pretty mellow critters, really.

[panader0]

50. Welcome to DU!

[Throck]

55. Isn't it obvious?

That deer is ticked off now.

[Niagara]

65. lmao

[Bayard]

57. I hate possums

For good reason, so bring it on!

Possums eat dead birds, specifically, dead bird wings. "Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM) is a neurologic disease in horses caused by infection with the protozoan Sarcocystis neurona (SN). SN infects horses when they ingest the organism in contaminated feed or water. The definitive host of this organism is the opossum, which passes the organism in its feces."

There is no vaccination. Most horses in the eastern U.S. will test positive for being exposed to it, but may not become symptomatic. It is not contagious--has to come by way of possums. I've had to treat two horses for it (very expensive), and I have a friend who is treating one now. Various symptoms. Her old gelding has trouble keeping his balance. My mare had lasting damage in her neck, and her tongue used to hang out sometimes.

As for raccoon's, we have to trap them here on the farm. They eat the chickens and ducks. I had one break into a duckling pen, and kill all 12 of them just for the hell of it. It only ate a few.

[LeftInTX]

60. Didn't know this about possums

Raccoons are the ultimate adapters to urban and human environments. People point to coyotes, but raccoons win hands down. At least coyotes don't like people. Raccoons don't but, they aren't shy. I've seen them standing and looking in our window. A coyote would never do that. Also raccoons are known to invade homes. Also they have the dexterity to do just about anything that other animals can't.

[d_r]

58. That's good eating nt

[d_r]

59. My favorite possum story

Years ago sitting in porch swing overlooking a field. Possum walking across field. Outdoorsy black lab jumps it, drops it, dead. Lab lays down facing it watching it. A little while later the possum comes back to life. The lab kills it against n and lays down and watches. A little while later the possum comes back to life. Lab kills it again and lays down watching. This kept going for like an hour until some one came and called off the lab. It had found the best greatest toy ever.

[FailureToCommunicate]

61. THAT'S just the sort of helpful critter we need in politics...

[burrowowl]

63. Love Pogo!

We have met the enemy and it is us!

[bucolic_frolic]

62. 'possum is hungry

that's all. the deer is like a lunch counter to him.

[Niagara]

64. Opossums...nature's pest control

This trail cam image is amazing!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

68. Love it!

[Raine]

70. Sweet

I love this 🥰 ... Thanks for posting it!