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VIDEO OF OPOSSUM SHOVING SKUNK INTO POND WINS IN TRAIL CAM CONTEST

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That's a nice pond y'got there. Be a shame if someone were to... shove you in.
Phillip W. Kirkland/Shutterstock



BY RACHAEL FUNNELL

14 Dec 2020, 17:35

All manner of sins have been committed in pursuit of just five minutes of fame,
and a recent competition hosted by Trail Cam Pro highlighted how life in front
of the lens can capture us at our worst. Of the six winners named, the top slot
was taken by Betsy Potter from New York for their night-time footage of a skunk
being pushed into a pond by a passing opossum. Re-emerging from the indignant
episode following a comical splash, the skunk drags itself back out again to
find the opossum gone. The footage is an excellent example of the silent
wildlife wars being waged around us every day.

“Some possums just want to watch the world burn,” wrote YouTube user Arielle
beneath the winning video. Opossums, sometimes mistakenly called possums, are
marsupials native to the Americas. Famous for their inclusive diets and hardy
survival skills, they make excellent colonizers and have successfully taken to a
vast range of habitats and environmental conditions.

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About the size of a domestic cat, the omnivorous are always on the lookout for
opportunities, be it a snack in a bin or inside your house, or, evidently, an
unsuspecting skunk who’s ripe for a dunking. Despite the aggression demonstrated
in this short clip, Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana) are normally craven
animals and the internet is rife with photos of their dramatic poses as they
feign death to get out of fighting or being eaten. It’s an adaptive defense
mechanism known as tonic immobility and they do it so often it’s also known as
“playing possum”.



The striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis, is also found across the states and can
release a potent, musk-filled scent to ward off predators. This is released from
two scent glands either side of the anus, which contain around 15 milliliters of
viscous fluid each. It can be projected several meters and has been compared to
garlic, burning sulfur and concentrated sewer gas. Perhaps then, this lawless
opossum was pre-empting a fragrant attack and thought it safest to strike while
the skunk was unaware less wind up covered in stinky yellow liquid (but it might
have felt guilty if it knew how cute these animals sound.)

Other successful entries to the 2020 Trail Camera Video Contest include a deer
sending out plumes of water vapor as it breathes in the cold air, a bobcat hot
on the tail of a squirrel and a wild turkey putting on quite a show.

If you’ve ever caught any comical scenes on your camera traps send them through
to social@iflscience.com or let us know on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
Earlier this year, one conservation photographer returned to his trail cam to
find a surprising visitor had swung by for an impromptu photoshoot.

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