Can you get Creepy Dave to MC & referee the raging_crocodile vs 100 opossum? If so we can set up a live stream payperview event and raise funds for an opossum rehabilitation & sanctuary of your choosing. If anyone can pull this off it would be the Creepy Dave we all know & love. Could you ask on our behalf. Over 1.8K in just 3 hours so far are wanting to see this event take place.
What I love about hognoses is that they pull their Oscar worthy performance of "im ded snek", but if moved or touched, they go even "deader". And if you flip them, they flip back, because ded sneks go belly up, and they're the deadest of them all
Once my mother found a dead opossum in the trash can. I told her that it was probably not dead, but she came back an hour later and it was still there. She insisted it was dead. It left that evening. Not the greatest opossum story, I know. But the only opossum story I know.
I was sitting on my front porch one evening when I felt something on the back of my leg, I knew not to make any sudden movements just in case whatever it was is bitey. Eventually I felt the body of an animal squeeze between my legs/ankles and it felt like a cat, it stopped before leaving my deck looked at me and we both froze lol big boy opposum! 😅 He I guess figured out I wasn’t going to hurt him and he waddled away 😊
@@mirrepoixwhen we lived in a farm house surrounded by fields, we kept cat food on our doorstep outside and at night when it was dark, possums would be on our doorstep eating it(and raccoons, cats, and chickens) well, the chickens during the day when they were out of their coop
I used to be a garbage collector, and I once opened one of those locking trashcans to find two juvenile opossum playing around inside. My best guess is that the resident found them, figured they were dead, and tossed them in the trash. But My favorite guess is that they somehow opened the trash can, climbed inside, pulled the lid back on, and figured out a way to lock it from inside.
Some opossums don't have control of their fainting..(most don't. ) it's possible he was still fainted. They lose consciousness when they're playing dead
@noellefritz5678 I had a similar situation. I would yell and make loud noises to try to chase it off, but it would just snarl and hiss at me. I guess I'm not scarey enough, because it never played dead.
Bobby the Vulture: Ooooo! Free dinner! Don't mind if I do. Frankie the Opossum: Hey! ... Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm not dead here! Can't a guy pretend to be dead without someone coming by and trying to eat me? Bobby the Vulture: Oh, my! This is awkward. See, I thought you were actually dead. You know, on the account of you not moving and the smell. Can't blame a fella from thinking you were a free meal. Frankie the Opossum: Look here, buddy! I ain't no snack. And this is a free country. I can plays dead if I wants to. Now buzzard off! Bobby the Vulture: That would be, Bobby. And you really should do something about that smell. Can I presume you're diseased and going to die soon? Maybe pencil you in for next Thursday? I wouldn't mind having you for dinner.
Fun fact, opossums will sometimes scream if startled. I learned this as a child when the neighbor realized he'd forgotten to take out the trash at about 1:00 a.m. He lifted the lid, dropped in the bag, lowered the lid & was suddenly face-to-face, nose-to-nose with an opossum. Not sure which one screamed first, but they both screamed loud and woke up several neighbors.
Funnier fact, I have been coon hunting for 35 years and have come across more possums I can count. Never heard a possum scream even when playing dead and picked up by the nape of the neck or being face to face with a hound dog. I think the screams was all from your buddy.
I raised 3 opossums from bottle to release. They were adorable. My favorite part was taking them out at night to prepare them for living in the wild. I wore a furry blanket so they could ride on my back and shoulders while I went around to various food spots (like mulberry trees) and let them forage. They started sleeping in a bass drum when they were adolescents, then when they were old enough I left my door open at night and they all left to live outdoors. I still think about them often.
I had a friend from college who once stepped on a baby hognose. The snake did its thing and played dead, and he mistook it for a dead rattlesnake and took it back to show his equally snake-obsessed professor. Only halfway through the drive back, the snake-which he still thinks is a rattlesnake-comes back to life in his pocket and starts slithering around the car while my friend is convinced that any move could be his last. He finally traps the snake in his car and gets the professor, who informs him that the snake is not actually venomous and therefore he isn’t interested, so my friend has to go back and put the snake back where he found it
That reminds me of a chap I used to work with. Driving along he saw a car with German plates stopped by the road in the woods (In Scotland). He stopped as they were crowded round the front of the car, wondering if they needed help. They'd hit a red deer stag & were wondering what to do as they didn't know the law in Scotland. Thinking he had free food to fill his freezer he said that if they helped him load it in the back of his Volvo estate, he'd report it to the police & they could be on their way. This they did, thanking him profusely for being so kind. Not far from home however, a very confused & angry 200ᵏᵍ/440ˡᵇˢ mass of muscle, hooves & antlers woke up & proceeded to kick out windows, bellow & thrash about. Not great while driving. It didn't end well for either of them, he had to put the animal out of its misery as it was already badly hurt. His car was pretty much totalled & there was no way he was going to write what happened in an insurance report. (It did fill his freezer though).🦌
Technically, hognoses are mildly venemous, but they're rear fanged so they have to latch on and chew for a bit to get the venom in. And even then, it's about as serious as a bee sting. There's a Snake Discovery video where a baby hognose latches on to Emily's hand, and she just laughs and lets it stay there while she gets the rest of the clutch into baby bins.
as someone who was bitten by a hognose, they most certainly are venomous. the back of my hand swelled up to the point it would jiggle. The venom is just 'not medically significant' so I didn't need to go to the hospital. after about four days the swelling was completely gone.
That’s funny because hognose snakes are rear fanged venomous! It’s not dangerous to be bitten by a hognose unless you’re allergic to their venom, though.
I love how opossums always look either adorable or absolutely deranged with no in between. The funny thing about the Hognose Snake is that if you try to roll it over again while it's playing dead, it will obstinately try to stay belly up and keep rolling. If that's a reflex, it's an overly dramatic one.
They really sell it, they will let their tongue fall out of their open mouth, even bleed or poop to make themselves smell like a dead snake. There's a hilarious video of a hognose playing dead with a voice-over, I watch it often just for laughs 😂 I also have a male western hognose, named Harley 😊
My dog brought a "dead" opossum home once. I told her to leave it outside, then threw some water on it. It got up, looked at me like "wtf?", then waddled away.
This is the most comprehensive explanation of how the "freeze" response works that I have ever seen! The actual footage of predators halting their pursuit makes it make so much more sense, especially seeing that of course a predator wouldn't want to waste energy on something it thinks is already dead. I just finished reading something about human stress responses and how sexual assault victims are often not believed because they didn't "fight" (shouting or hitting etc.) and part of that is that so many people refuse to believe that freezing is a real and instinctual (and thus involuntary) stress response that can help survive violence. I think waaay more people need to be exposed to the compilation of the freeze response because of this.
yeah, I think there are considered 4 stress responses now fight, flight, freeze and fawn, with fawn being a kind of appeasing behaviour to the aggressor. I find it so annoying how people disregard the last two and especially fawn in SA situations because there are so many other situations in life in which people will choose to appease someone acting aggressively because it diffuses a situation quicker than arguing/fighting, flight often isn't really an option and it's less likely to end in physical violence. But when it comes to SA people just disregard all the stuff that's instinctive in those other scenarios and act like fighting to the death is the only reasonable response, it's really frustrating.
My favorite (sarcasm) response to SA or abusive relationships is “well, why didn’t they just leave???” Like people conveniently forget there is often an emotional manipulation to these kinds of things. And ofc the physical threats.
THIS!!!!!! SO MUCH THIS!!!! It's like people have forgotten that people are animals too and that we have not evolved past our natural responses to our environment. We are still operating on that "simplistic" survival brain, yet we have also evolved a thinking brain on top of it that people somehow erroneously thinks is always in charge. In trauma, of any kind, the thinking brain can get overridden by the "primordial" one, based on the perceived or actual level of threat. The percieved leavel of threat can often be hypervigilant, as seen in PTSD, and in these instances, people with this condition need a complete reset in order to get back to being able to engage with the thinking brain as the thinking brain is no longer accessible. This is why therapies such as DBT and CBT fail with severe cases of PTSD. This is one of the core theories of the use of ketamine, psychedelics as well as older, currently less used methods such as ECT, as these methods allow the brain that is stuck in the flight/freeze responce ie PTSD, to be therapeutically mitigated. The results have been quite positive.
People don't even bother thinking too deeply about what fight or flight even *means*. Both of these actions don't work well in modern society where there are social rules. Flight, or leaving a situation, can be considered highly rude depending on the context, but I would label that a "most likely". Fight is also dicey, as there are laws concerning assault and battery, so if the fear of the law crosses the victim's mind at all, that will be a huge hinderence.
So women are prey animals with no agency? Freeze in the human world and you become a victim, that's called a failed response. Maybe they should try self defense or understand they are the weaker sex.
Plumber here. I got called out to fix a sewer leak in a crawl space once. The customer said that they could smell sewage coming from the crawlspace. I went down under the house and had him running water in the bathroom where the smell was at its worst. I was panning my flashlight around to see any leaks but it was dry. I looked to my side beyond a pillar and saw an opossum mouth wide open within touching distance, and when I did my head grazed a nail in the floorboards making a *pring* noise that you might hear in an old horror movie. I nearly burst through the floor Koolaid man style to try to get away from that animal. It turned out that it was dead already and it was the source of the smell. Fun times it was one of the few times I openly swore in a customer’s house.
That happened to me once in my own crawl space. Except with a skunk. That had exploded from the heat. PRO TIP: Ozone generators can destroy smells within an hour or two. PRO TIP: Don't breathe the ozone though, since it also destroys lung tissue. PRO TIP: vinegar mixed with hydrogen peroxide will neutralize stinky liquids fairly quickly.
I can imagine being the client, in the bathroom, running water and flushing the toilet and suddenly hear “WHAT THE FU-“ and scrambling Having been in a crawl space where a line DID burst as I was looking around, I can only imagine how bad they felt until you told them about the animal
Not quite as funny but one made an impressive nest against the firewall of my old pickup truck. My son in law was trying to jump the truck off and grabbed the top off the nest. He hasn't moved that fast in a decade!
When my mother was little, she found a nest of baby opposums. The babies imprinted on her. They would follow her around the house making little hissing noises and would sleep in her hair at night. Her parents would have to use fruit to goad them off her head in the morning so she could go to school lol.
I found my mom giggling at the 'effects of drugs on spiders' when I was 15-16. Definitely my first memory of UA-cam. I'm 32 now (shit) and this dude still cracks me up.
My ex took care of a baby possum he named Penny. She was anxiety personified as an animal. She was pretty adorable. When she got better, he would set her on my shoulder and she'd stay there for hours. Sometimes I felt her nuzzle. When she got big, we let her free. She would occasionally visit whenever we fed our cats. Also I like how it looks they have fingerless gloves. 💛
They're little homeless people and raccoons are little bandits. I feed both of them at my house regularly - one pitcher of cheap catfood a day, and they help control the bugs, and haven't gotten into our trash in 20 years.
A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance, with its head down near the ground, by drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at the beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken. Chicken hypnotism - Wikipedia
@@redrock1963 My Husband used to get into all sorts of trouble as a child, doing this to his Nan's hens. It was referred to as 'sticking chickens to the ground'!
When I was still a kid my mom found an abandoned baby possum (opossum and possum are both correct last I checked). The local possum rescue told us they were too full to take him but we could take care of him for a year and then release him into the wild. They told us what to do and what to feet him. We gave him a combination of cat food and insects from our garden. He LOVED snails. I named him Smudge and after a year we took him out to a wilderness preserve, far away from the road and let him go. It was very sweet. We did our best to make sure he never became domesticated. Only interacting when we needed to change his enclosure.
I'm glad you did the work, I feel like a lot of people rescue wild animals with good intentions, but then treat them like pets and expect them to do just fine once released
Opossum is the original name, while possum is a regional dialect. It gets confusing since it's also used for a bunch of completely different marsupials in Australia. It's like the hawk/buzzard/vulture thing. Or elk/moose/wapiti. Makes it complicated to talk about animals online, but using scientific names feels awkward. Yay dialects!
It’s probably this. It’s probably done to signal that they ate something poisonous and that if they eat them, they will also be poisoned so they will back off.
What’s funny is hognoses are famous for overacting, if you flip em over they’ll go belly up again and make a whole show of it. Just full on “Nu-huh! I’m dead!! See??”
Yes! Although I don't often see them around my apartment complex, I know they're around, and that makes me happy. It also reminds me to keep my kitty on her harness when we go outside for walk time at night.
"A tardigrade masquerading as Barney" literally the best line on the internet this month. Thanks for making these fun and staggeringly well edited videos Ze Frank. I miss your old stuff but I understand the channel pivot and am glad you are still making thought provoking videos. I mean I consider myself quite the biology layman and this is the first time me learning about Opossum's docking sperm!
Years ago, some neighbors of ours had a large opossum “playing dead” on their front steps. It was there for HOURS. They had to put up a sign explaining what was going on so other people would leave it alone.
I have a possum who comes around before dawn for snacks. It has been fun learning what the little guy likes and doesn't like to eat. He's a very tidy eater and spits the cherry seeds back into the dish. However, he does not care for broccoli or cauliflower and will fling the pieces around the porch in disgust. Canned and dry cat food are always welcomed.
I'm an opossum rehabber. They love scrambled eggs and yogurt. NOT Greek yogurt or yogurt with artificial sweetener. Flavored yogurt is fine. My rehabs always love strawberry. Blueberry is hit or miss.
Walked outside one morning to see one cornered in my dogs water bowl. Apparently they soaked all night, looked like an old oil change with water in it. They always sway like they're about to fall over.
@@primesspct2 Fun fact! The tail is more like a giant finger since it is prehensile, complete with a unique fingerprint at the end. We're just biased due to seeing the appearance when it's is straight as looking "rat-like", due to the greater plethora of rodents and tails used for balance, compared to a 5th prehensile limb. Sometimes in captivity I've even seen opissums hold tails and walk together with others they're close with, which is pretty cute.
We had a pet opossum named Arty. He was a big, big boy. He really opened my eyes up to how misunderstood these poor creatures are. They don't get rabies, they're immune to snake bites, and they eat all sorts of pests. Also, no, they aren't carriers for disease - the only way they spread anything is by eating something that was infected, before another animal gets into their droppings. Save the opossums... they deserve better.
@@AleXxTM123 No, they do eat ticks, although not hundreds of thousands. They also eat worms, grubs, mosquito, flies and bird eggs. I never heard the snake bite thing, but due to lower body temperature, they are almost, but not always , immune to rabies. Ground hogs do the frozen thing too. 😀
@@AleXxTM123 Opossums in the clade Didelphini are well known to be resistant to snake venom due to endogenous circulating inhibitors which target metalloproteinases and phospholipase
@@AleXxTM123 Opossums do not harbor diseases normally found in dogs and cats, such as distemper, parvovirus, or feline hepatitis. All warm-blooded mammals can contract rabies, but the only confirmed reports of rabid opossums come from the white eared opossum only found in Brazil. Scientists believe that a natural body temperature too low to support the rabies virus is the reason.
I volunteered at a local Wildlife Rehab center, and we had 2 Virginia Opossums that were habituated (couldn't be released), so they were education animals. When I was sweeping their room they'd wander after me looking for bugs or just sticking their nose in everything they could find. When stinkbugs got inside we'd feed them to 'em. My favorite was a male named Aldo - he liked getting his ears scritched. It was the coolest volunteer job ever!
I love opossums. They make wonderful neighbors, coming to visit, sharing a bit of cat food, exploring here and there, never trying to do anything hurtful or harmful.
I don't know why I was surprised to see that considering I've known for years that they hang upside-down in trees by their tails, you know? Like, how did I not think they could do more with them? XD
@@shelleyoxenhorn833 Because it's not a commonly known thing. Also, most people wouldn't expect them to want or need to carry leaves and twigs. Much less with their tails.
@@NatYourAverageNerd Only babies can hang from their tails. Frank even says this, adults get to be too heavy to hang from their tails. Also never grab an Opossum by the tail, it's very easy to just pull the vertebrae apart.
you videos are literally life man. i hate bugs and not real fond of nature but i find every video you put out, be it about possoms or tarantulas, simply beautiful. thank you for educating us via humor. thats how i learn. from a 51 yr old woman ......thanks teach! and space gopher got me lmao
The Virginia Opossum is not North America's only Marsupial. North America includes Northern America, Central America and The Caribbean which results in North America having around 7 species of Marsupials all being Opossums.
@@bazzboda4785 yeah it always bugs me, people sometimes say "North America" to mean "US and Canada" and act like Mexico and Central America are a whole separate thing. Maybe you could make an argument for CA but Mexico? It's even more arbitrary than the divide between Europe and Asia since it's based entirely on country borders.
@@Ringtail: I've never seen Mexico excluded from North America. It's more likely that someone is repeating a claim that was made in ignorance of the much more distant rainforest areas of Mexico than anything. Sort of like saying that the Gila Monster is North America's only venomous lizard, not realizing that there's more than one species of Gila Monster.
This is the coolest thing about opossums! Rabies is the scariest virus right above Ebola. It’s amazing that they are able to do this, and their defense mechanism is so badass. Plus they’re adorable so that’s cool too!
Opossum: The kinda weird kid who's had to partially raise themselves because both or single parent works all the time, who occasionally smells and awkwardly stares at things because they don't know what it is, but is wholesome as kittens and grows up to be hot in a feral but tame kind of way. Trash goblin who cleans up good. Possum: Probably drunk on fermented fruit, falls out of trees and off fences but somehow never breaks anything, doesn't have a brain to suffer brain damage, will screech at things but almost never bite, and is generally a tolerable annoyance because you can just shoo them away and sometimes they're cute. Pos'm: Britney git! Pos'm! Gown girl! It got teeth but it dint use em! Good girl! Pos'm stew tonite.
One time my mom found a "dead" opossum in the yard, so she got the dogs inside and a shovel to hurl it into the woods. But, when she got back it was gone. She came back inside utterly amazed and asked: "What kind of animal could play possum like that???"
My favorite thing about breeding Hognoses is when you're early enough to watch them hatch, and sometimes one will stick it's head out of their egg and then instantly "die" because the first thing it saw was a giant monster staring at it. Baby hognoses trying to play dead is one of the cutest things in the world, even though it does make me feel a little bit bad for scaring them so bad they think they're about to die. And then you sometimes get one like Miss Nibbles who comes out of the egg and immediately lunges at the nearest finger with an open mouth. Literally two seconds old and already so full of Righteous Anger.
I adore hognose snakes. Mine is usually pretty chill unless he is going to shed. Then he is full of piss and vinegar 😂. He will hiss up a storm if I try to feed him, (when it's not clearly obvious if he is going into a shed cycle). Sometimes his hissing sounds like a little sneeze. And sometimes he hisses at his frozen/thawed mice to show those dead mice who the boss is 🤣 I just adore these guys. ❤
When I was in middle school, I walked every day and once saw an opossum playing dead under a tree along the usual route. It was the only time so far that I can recall ever seeing one with blue-green eyes instead of the usual black, and I wish I had a cellphone on me at that time (but it was before I got a nice one, not just the early cellular wireless edition pre-AT&T merger). In other instances years later, I've seen opossums in my dad's backyard or in my own neighborhoods, always wanting scrap foods or just doing their little opossum things in the evenings. I know some folks think they're hideous, but I've always thought they were cute, and I've yet to have a bad encounter with one. I also find it endearing in a sad way that they will hide how stressed out they are until you find them truly dead from being overwhelmed by anxiety. Don't stress them out, folks. They're scared and just want food and friends like most people.
When my oldest son was 3 or 4, we used to put a tin of cat food out for the neighborhood cat, some of the kids named Edward. One night I was in the kitchen and my son checked right outside the front door to see if the cat was eating the food. He came running into the kitchen and said "Mom, there's a big rat outside." So I checked and it was an opossum hiding under a lawn chair 😂. I told him just don't go out without me or get to close to it and it will leave on it's own, it just wants some cat food too. 😊
my mother's dog brought a live opossum into the house last weekend. the power had been out and that's what all the lights came back on to see. the opossum was fine, we watched it gently keel over every time the dog got within 3ft of it, then we carefully carried it outside with a snow shovel. this was at 1AM monday morning, at least no one had to work on memorial day. also, the dogs are not free-roam, the opossum got into their pen.
Australia, Antarctica and South America were once connected. Marsupials developed on this continent and only this continent. Then it broke into the current three. Antarctica drifted off to the south pole and whatever animals once lived there went extinct. South America (still marsupial exlusive at that time) collided with North America and from there, placental mammals came, replacing the marsupials (appearently they are at an evolutionary disadvantage) until they went extinct. Except the opossum. For some reason, this rascal not only survived the placentapocalypse, it was so successfull that it spread to North America, too.
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 That's close to what happened but not exactly. Marsupials originated in what's now South America, then a single marsupial migrated to Australia while it was still connected to South America. That one species diversified into all the marsupials that Australia has now. The closest relative of the Australian marsupials is the monito del monte, a tiny South American marsupial.
@@Jpteryx yep the monito del monte literally tiny mountain monkey is a very basal marsupial, opossums (didelphis)are odd because they went to conquer north america too amazingly
Finally a Ze Frank possum video! I love these creatures. They are grossly misunderstood and adorable to watch. They eat thousands of ticks and other nasties, which is a great reason to have them around. I had one (see my icon) who lived in a big pine near my patio. I called him Simon and early morning when was having coffee he’d peer at me. I began putting fruit and veg out for him. Soon he was waiting for his breakfast and would nom away happily while I had my coffee. He especially loved marshmallows. The sad thing is these delightful bebbee’s only live about 2 years in the wild.
They were only a treat. When you eat trash and your life expectancy is two years, a few marshmallows isn’t going to hurt in the grand scheme of things😉
I think I read the tick thing was debunked ? They eat some but there was something off about the study, the numbers of what they eat. I can't remember exactly. They're still cool to have around. My neighbor puts food scraps out for the resident opossum 😂 It's very chill.
My hubs and I saved an opossum from the middle of the highway… he was surrounded by his squished family. His name is Paulie and he loooooves being an indoor baby. He has free rein of the house and has many beds. He is litter boxes trained, and while we put him outside twice a day, he busted in our screen door to get inside. He loves the domesticated life! We have had alllllllll the animals in our life together and he is one of the most special.
That poor thing must have been traumatized from seeing his entire family dead around him before you picked him up. I hope Paulie lives his best life with such loving humans like you.
Friend of mine had a pet opossum. Cute as hell. Every time I'd come over, I would see it playing dead in a corner somewhere. After enough visits it would only play dead when I directly looked at it. Then only when I'd pet it. Eventually it realized I wasn't trying to eat it and stopping doing that. lol
@@ntielman2072 I mean, not going to lie... there were times when I was tempted to just go "ooga booga" out of the blue and see if it would fall over and play dead. lol
Tonic immobility (the involuntary freeze response, the second one discussed, not the first one) is a big part of why some SA survivors can't move when they're attacked, and wonder why on earth they didn't fight back when they wanted to. It's important to understand neurobiology when we try to cross-examine victims, and unfortunately we're pretty bad at it. There's a good piece by a Dr. Rebecca for US law enforcement on the neurobiology of trauma for those who want to understand how this response plays out in humans. There's a huge difference between the choice not to move and the involuntary response.
Of course it makes sense that some people freeze with fear. It's not really all that hard to understand. Survival instincts kick in dependent on how someone is wired genetically & emotionally to react. How many millions in "research" for how many renewed years of grants in "free" taxpayers money did it take to arrive at this "scientific" conclusion? 😅
@@kathyflorcruz552 I 100% agree with you that it really isn't hard to understand freezing or fawning as a fear response but sadly so so many people don't seem to get it that I can also see why it makes sense to search for more concrete scientific proof to combat those that seem to view fighting to the death or running for your life as the only reasonable response to SA.
Oh, the joy of a fresh Frank feature! I'd been suffering True Facts withdrawals so I had a nightmare the other night in which Frank denounced True Facts then joined the cast of a Friends remake. Now I feel safe again.
I cant even image how hard you work, ZeFrank. Straight can't imagine, my attention span and work ethic simply could not create these things. It's not even that I'm not funny or clever, it's that I can't be bothered to look for anything longer than 5 or 7 minutes. You find such great clips and photos on top of your phenomenal writing. Thank you for all your effort
sounds like you may have ADHD/ADD. worth talking to a professional. a friend did after so many years of being undiagnosed and now she's happy and effective as never in her life (her words, not mine)
I´d like just to point out that the opossum isn´t the land mammal with most teeth, in fact it´s the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) also know as tatu-canastra here in South America. They have around 80 to 100 teeth.
Sometimes I notice I'm not laughing as much when these episodes come out, but I honestly think it's because I've just "adjusted" to your video style Like during the sperm section you nonchalantly referred to the cells as "little bastards" and I had to go back and process "wait. That was fucking hilarious" because it didn't even phase me. Keep doing what you're doing man, I'll never get over just how good your content is lmfao
A long time ago, my dog brought us a young possum. He was holding the still very alive possum by the scruff of its neck, he didn't want to hurt it, he just wanted to show it to us. We let it go, but it and its family occasionally stopped by our yard again every so often for the next several years.
Hey Ze Frank I love your content. Even though you might not see my comment, I just want you to know that on this sea of crappy content that exists on this platform, you are a safe island. Your quality, entertainment and humor, combined with actually interesting facts and backed up by science do a really great video. Thank you for making my day better.
I have lots of opossum in my area. They hardly bug me but they do occasionally make their way into my house. The nice thing about them is they are easy to pick up by the tail and are easy to chuck outside. What i find mysterious is cat's won't mess with them. I have seen a cat and an opossum walk past each other without so much as a nod.
One of the absolute best nature videos I've ever seen! (I'm 60 years old). Informative, creative, funny, and cool. Keep it up and keep them coming!! Protect our cool possums. They are no threat to humans. Thanks!
I actually love Possums. I live in North Georgia and these little fury things get HUGE. My wife caught one sneaking around on the back porch and tried to sweep it off with the broom. She was hurling cuss words and it kept hissing and snarling back. It was funny to watch. She gave up and said, "Fine! You just do your thing but stay away from the trash cans!"😂
Absolutely love your vids brother. I couldn't imagine the amount of footage you go through to do these for us but I get excited every time I see a little blue dot next to your name. Keep up the awesome work mate.
im so happy i exist during the same time as this guy. im sure in a few hundred years this guy’s channel is gonna reemerge and people are gonna be so sad to realize he doesn’t post anymore
Some time ago a video from Andreas Kay showed up on my recommended (True facts: Leafhoppers and Friends). And I did feel sad that he won't post anymore. 😥
we are running out of animals in the real world, sadly. most of them have been documented, so ZeFrank will have enough material to keep posting for years after we've killed them all. I am not sure I will be able to watch then though ...
So happy you featured my favorite snake the Hognose! Would you possibly cover Jumping spiders? I’ve been thinking about purchasing a spiderling. They supposedly make great pets! 😊 Love your videos as always! I’m currently battling brain cancer, and your videos never fail to make me smile and laugh ❤
I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but I'm wishing you strength and courage in your battle! Remember to drink clean water, eat non-pesticide treated fruits and veggies, and maintain an optimistic outlook on life. It may not happen overnight, but I believe that you'll win in the end, hon!
I love jumping spiders too. He did do a video on the mating dance of the peacock spider, a very fancy jumper. You can also google 'Bob the spider hunter, jumping spider'. He's done quite a few videos on them, and kept a couple in the house to reproduce - very sweet couple. Sending warmest positive vibes for your health. ❤Take care.
@@NatYourAverageNerd thank you 😊 I kicked it once, 12 years ago, so I’m pretty hopeful to do it again! The chemo is showing that it is starting to work, so I’m happy!
I always anxiously await your new videos. When one comes out it absolutely makes my day. I know you always thank whomever you get your information from at the end of your videos but I want to thank you guys for doing what you do. I can watch them over and over and still laugh and smile each time. Great content. Keep up the amazing job ya'll do and yes I am southern lol. ❤❤❤
I rescued a baby opossum after its mom abandoned it; possums are like that, if a kit falls off, it gets left behind. And the fact that eat ticks makes them greater to me, I just love possums!
Speaking of stink... I caught one in a live trap. While very hung over, I was letting it go. I got a wiff of it, and the smell was of rotting meat, and not just a faint smell. I was dry-heaving for about 10 minutes afterward, even though I couldn't smell it. Just the thought of the smell filling my lungs sent me to the toilet for another round of wrenching my guts out.
@TheSaintBigFoot raccoons is what I was after. Too many in the creek behind the house. One huge one that's been the 'ring leader' in several dog attacks. Vicious critters, for sure. Even amongst themselves.
I'm sure this is probably the n-th video of yours I've posted this on, but I really like your videos when I'm having a panic attack. You have a very soothing voice, and for some reason education distracts me from my own unpleasant mind. I guess I'm trying to say "thank you" using extra words.
Go to brilliant.org/zefrank to get a 30-day free trial + 20% off their annual subscription.
You've really been on fire lately! It's great seeing so many new videos.
Please let us know your other VA gigs as well!
Can you get Creepy Dave to MC & referee the raging_crocodile vs 100 opossum? If so we can set up a live stream payperview event and raise funds for an opossum rehabilitation & sanctuary of your choosing.
If anyone can pull this off it would be the Creepy Dave we all know & love. Could you ask on our behalf. Over 1.8K in just 3 hours so far are wanting to see this event take place.
You upload.
I watch.
You say stuff.
I enjoy.
Brilliant.
Another great video. I overly enjoy these videos.
What I love about hognoses is that they pull their Oscar worthy performance of "im ded snek", but if moved or touched, they go even "deader". And if you flip them, they flip back, because ded sneks go belly up, and they're the deadest of them all
Hilariously accurate. 😂
Method acting!
The best snakes ever!
There’s a video on Snake Discovery with a wild snake that did that 😂 so ded and deader 🐍
"The dedest of them all" 😭😭😂
Once my mother found a dead opossum in the trash can. I told her that it was probably not dead, but she came back an hour later and it was still there. She insisted it was dead. It left that evening. Not the greatest opossum story, I know. But the only opossum story I know.
I was sitting on my front porch one evening when I felt something on the back of my leg, I knew not to make any sudden movements just in case whatever it was is bitey. Eventually I felt the body of an animal squeeze between my legs/ankles and it felt like a cat, it stopped before leaving my deck looked at me and we both froze lol big boy opposum! 😅 He I guess figured out I wasn’t going to hurt him and he waddled away 😊
@@mirrepoixwhen we lived in a farm house surrounded by fields, we kept cat food on our doorstep outside and at night when it was dark, possums would be on our doorstep eating it(and raccoons, cats, and chickens) well, the chickens during the day when they were out of their coop
I used to be a garbage collector, and I once opened one of those locking trashcans to find two juvenile opossum playing around inside.
My best guess is that the resident found them, figured they were dead, and tossed them in the trash. But My favorite guess is that they somehow opened the trash can, climbed inside, pulled the lid back on, and figured out a way to lock it from inside.
Some opossums don't have control of their fainting..(most don't. ) it's possible he was still fainted. They lose consciousness when they're playing dead
@noellefritz5678 I had a similar situation. I would yell and make loud noises to try to chase it off, but it would just snarl and hiss at me. I guess I'm not scarey enough, because it never played dead.
opossum: sees scary vulture, plays dead
vulture: yoooo free dinner.
*sees creepy dave, FTFY :D
oh you're alive... my bad!
Bobby the Vulture: Ooooo! Free dinner! Don't mind if I do.
Frankie the Opossum: Hey! ... Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm not dead here! Can't a guy pretend to be dead without someone coming by and trying to eat me?
Bobby the Vulture: Oh, my! This is awkward. See, I thought you were actually dead. You know, on the account of you not moving and the smell. Can't blame a fella from thinking you were a free meal.
Frankie the Opossum: Look here, buddy! I ain't no snack. And this is a free country. I can plays dead if I wants to. Now buzzard off!
Bobby the Vulture: That would be, Bobby. And you really should do something about that smell. Can I presume you're diseased and going to die soon? Maybe pencil you in for next Thursday? I wouldn't mind having you for dinner.
@@sunstone1957 Creepy Dave makes me giggle.
Also vulture"WTF IS MOVING AFTER I TOOK A BITE!"
My friend: "the worst she can say is no"
Her: *falls over dead*
Or
You: the worst that can happen is she says no
Friend: **falls over dead**
You: 👁👄👁
😂😂😂💀
Fun fact, opossums will sometimes scream if startled. I learned this as a child when the neighbor realized he'd forgotten to take out the trash at about 1:00 a.m. He lifted the lid, dropped in the bag, lowered the lid & was suddenly face-to-face, nose-to-nose with an opossum. Not sure which one screamed first, but they both screamed loud and woke up several neighbors.
Funnier fact, I have been coon hunting for 35 years and have come across more possums I can count. Never heard a possum scream even when playing dead and picked up by the nape of the neck or being face to face with a hound dog.
I think the screams was all from your buddy.
That happened to me taking out leftovers to our compost pile. Possum screamed the loudest!
I raised 3 opossums from bottle to release. They were adorable. My favorite part was taking them out at night to prepare them for living in the wild. I wore a furry blanket so they could ride on my back and shoulders while I went around to various food spots (like mulberry trees) and let them forage. They started sleeping in a bass drum when they were adolescents, then when they were old enough I left my door open at night and they all left to live outdoors. I still think about them often.
Didn't know opossums came in bottles.
Well done!
Now I'm imagining three little opossums curled up on the pillow inside a bass drum.
why does this somehow sound like a ghibli movie? 😭
Sweet!
I had a friend from college who once stepped on a baby hognose. The snake did its thing and played dead, and he mistook it for a dead rattlesnake and took it back to show his equally snake-obsessed professor. Only halfway through the drive back, the snake-which he still thinks is a rattlesnake-comes back to life in his pocket and starts slithering around the car while my friend is convinced that any move could be his last. He finally traps the snake in his car and gets the professor, who informs him that the snake is not actually venomous and therefore he isn’t interested, so my friend has to go back and put the snake back where he found it
That reminds me of a chap I used to work with. Driving along he saw a car with German plates stopped by the road in the woods (In Scotland). He stopped as they were crowded round the front of the car, wondering if they needed help. They'd hit a red deer stag & were wondering what to do as they didn't know the law in Scotland.
Thinking he had free food to fill his freezer he said that if they helped him load it in the back of his Volvo estate, he'd report it to the police & they could be on their way. This they did, thanking him profusely for being so kind.
Not far from home however, a very confused & angry 200ᵏᵍ/440ˡᵇˢ mass of muscle, hooves & antlers woke up & proceeded to kick out windows, bellow & thrash about. Not great while driving.
It didn't end well for either of them, he had to put the animal out of its misery as it was already badly hurt. His car was pretty much totalled & there was no way he was going to write what happened in an insurance report. (It did fill his freezer though).🦌
Technically, hognoses are mildly venemous, but they're rear fanged so they have to latch on and chew for a bit to get the venom in. And even then, it's about as serious as a bee sting. There's a Snake Discovery video where a baby hognose latches on to Emily's hand, and she just laughs and lets it stay there while she gets the rest of the clutch into baby bins.
I'm betting he's grateful for not using his name.
as someone who was bitten by a hognose, they most certainly are venomous. the back of my hand swelled up to the point it would jiggle. The venom is just 'not medically significant' so I didn't need to go to the hospital. after about four days the swelling was completely gone.
That’s funny because hognose snakes are rear fanged venomous! It’s not dangerous to be bitten by a hognose unless you’re allergic to their venom, though.
I love how opossums always look either adorable or absolutely deranged with no in between.
The funny thing about the Hognose Snake is that if you try to roll it over again while it's playing dead, it will obstinately try to stay belly up and keep rolling. If that's a reflex, it's an overly dramatic one.
They always look embarrassed to me, like they walked in on an awkward conversation.
Snek would bust out a wee fainting couch prop if they could.
@@ImaTroperMOOOOM! DON'T COME IN, I'M WEIRD!!
They really sell it, they will let their tongue fall out of their open mouth, even bleed or poop to make themselves smell like a dead snake.
There's a hilarious video of a hognose playing dead with a voice-over, I watch it often just for laughs 😂 I also have a male western hognose, named Harley 😊
My dog brought a "dead" opossum home once. I told her to leave it outside, then threw some water on it. It got up, looked at me like "wtf?", then waddled away.
waddle waddle
@@Averageuser-i8m 'Til the very next day
@@Averageuser-i8m I was going to reply waddle waddle 😄
Till the very next day
Bom Bom Bom
This is the most comprehensive explanation of how the "freeze" response works that I have ever seen! The actual footage of predators halting their pursuit makes it make so much more sense, especially seeing that of course a predator wouldn't want to waste energy on something it thinks is already dead.
I just finished reading something about human stress responses and how sexual assault victims are often not believed because they didn't "fight" (shouting or hitting etc.) and part of that is that so many people refuse to believe that freezing is a real and instinctual (and thus involuntary) stress response that can help survive violence. I think waaay more people need to be exposed to the compilation of the freeze response because of this.
yeah, I think there are considered 4 stress responses now fight, flight, freeze and fawn, with fawn being a kind of appeasing behaviour to the aggressor. I find it so annoying how people disregard the last two and especially fawn in SA situations because there are so many other situations in life in which people will choose to appease someone acting aggressively because it diffuses a situation quicker than arguing/fighting, flight often isn't really an option and it's less likely to end in physical violence. But when it comes to SA people just disregard all the stuff that's instinctive in those other scenarios and act like fighting to the death is the only reasonable response, it's really frustrating.
My favorite (sarcasm) response to SA or abusive relationships is “well, why didn’t they just leave???”
Like people conveniently forget there is often an emotional manipulation to these kinds of things. And ofc the physical threats.
THIS!!!!!! SO MUCH THIS!!!! It's like people have forgotten that people are animals too and that we have not evolved past our natural responses to our environment. We are still operating on that "simplistic" survival brain, yet we have also evolved a thinking brain on top of it that people somehow erroneously thinks is always in charge. In trauma, of any kind, the thinking brain can get overridden by the "primordial" one, based on the perceived or actual level of threat. The percieved leavel of threat can often be hypervigilant, as seen in PTSD, and in these instances, people with this condition need a complete reset in order to get back to being able to engage with the thinking brain as the thinking brain is no longer accessible. This is why therapies such as DBT and CBT fail with severe cases of PTSD. This is one of the core theories of the use of ketamine, psychedelics as well as older, currently less used methods such as ECT, as these methods allow the brain that is stuck in the flight/freeze responce ie PTSD, to be therapeutically mitigated. The results have been quite positive.
People don't even bother thinking too deeply about what fight or flight even *means*. Both of these actions don't work well in modern society where there are social rules. Flight, or leaving a situation, can be considered highly rude depending on the context, but I would label that a "most likely".
Fight is also dicey, as there are laws concerning assault and battery, so if the fear of the law crosses the victim's mind at all, that will be a huge hinderence.
So women are prey animals with no agency? Freeze in the human world and you become a victim, that's called a failed response. Maybe they should try self defense or understand they are the weaker sex.
Plumber here. I got called out to fix a sewer leak in a crawl space once. The customer said that they could smell sewage coming from the crawlspace. I went down under the house and had him running water in the bathroom where the smell was at its worst. I was panning my flashlight around to see any leaks but it was dry.
I looked to my side beyond a pillar and saw an opossum mouth wide open within touching distance, and when I did my head grazed a nail in the floorboards making a *pring* noise that you might hear in an old horror movie. I nearly burst through the floor Koolaid man style to try to get away from that animal. It turned out that it was dead already and it was the source of the smell. Fun times it was one of the few times I openly swore in a customer’s house.
Holy smokes. Thanks for that story. Gave me quite a chuckle during my lunch hour.
That happened to me once in my own crawl space. Except with a skunk. That had exploded from the heat. PRO TIP: Ozone generators can destroy smells within an hour or two. PRO TIP: Don't breathe the ozone though, since it also destroys lung tissue. PRO TIP: vinegar mixed with hydrogen peroxide will neutralize stinky liquids fairly quickly.
I can imagine being the client, in the bathroom, running water and flushing the toilet and suddenly hear “WHAT THE FU-“ and scrambling
Having been in a crawl space where a line DID burst as I was looking around, I can only imagine how bad they felt until you told them about the animal
Not quite as funny but one made an impressive nest against the firewall of my old pickup truck. My son in law was trying to jump the truck off and grabbed the top off the nest. He hasn't moved that fast in a decade!
I bet the time between seeing it and when you screamed felt like an eternity.
I laughed really hard at "it's like a game of musical chairs, but with nipples, and to the death."
Then I felt really bad.
The Ze Frank Experience!
All marsupials have this birth experience. Cuts down on navel gazers.
@@EinwetokEasy to avoid navel gazing when you don't have a navel.
I, too, laughed out loud then felt bad about it. NGL, it’s still funny.😊
I am starting to think the best thing most biology researchers have done so far Is to provide endless material for Ze.Franks's videos.
No no, Science Hippies.
That’s a fact.
Indubitably
When my mother was little, she found a nest of baby opposums. The babies imprinted on her. They would follow her around the house making little hissing noises and would sleep in her hair at night. Her parents would have to use fruit to goad them off her head in the morning so she could go to school lol.
I don't know if this is a tragedy, super cute, or made up. Either way its a great story to keep telling.
No fleas?
@@kentneumann5209my mom raised a couple of orphans, they never got fleas from her cats.
There’s a webtoon called “The cursed princess club” and the MAIN CHARACTER IS EXACTLY LIKE THIS!!! 😂
@@RKyle-wx6rpOmg never expected to see cursed princess club here
I found my mom giggling at the 'effects of drugs on spiders' when I was 15-16. Definitely my first memory of UA-cam. I'm 32 now (shit) and this dude still cracks me up.
He IS amazing, just love him!!!
My ex took care of a baby possum he named Penny. She was anxiety personified as an animal. She was pretty adorable. When she got better, he would set her on my shoulder and she'd stay there for hours. Sometimes I felt her nuzzle. When she got big, we let her free. She would occasionally visit whenever we fed our cats. Also I like how it looks they have fingerless gloves. 💛
They're little homeless people and raccoons are little bandits. I feed both of them at my house regularly - one pitcher of cheap catfood a day, and they help control the bugs, and haven't gotten into our trash in 20 years.
Some animals are anxiety animals. Other animals are Anxiety animals. There is a big difference.
They look like goth rats (even though they have nothing to do with them), they even have little black "fingerless gloves". Love em. Goofy goobers.
*opossum
@@skylerchatham5934 unless they were talking about the Australian possum
2:31 “Many get on board, but only one will arrive. Sperm Train, coming soon… No, too obvious!” 😂😂
☠️
Yes, I literally laughed out loud at that one!
We call the sperm train.....*EggPiercer*!😁
I actually started singing in a soulful voice, "Everybody get on the SPERM TRAIN!"
"Or when a chicken stares at a line. Don't ask"
You can't just drop that knowledge on us and expect us not to demand to know more
There's plenty of videos about it. Look up somthing like "Chicken Hypnosis" and you'll find more than you need.
A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance, with its head down near the ground, by drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at the beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken.
Chicken hypnotism - Wikipedia
they also will get back up and snap out of it if the line is erased
@@redrock1963 My Husband used to get into all sorts of trouble as a child, doing this to his Nan's hens. It was referred to as 'sticking chickens to the ground'!
already been done , go back and look
"Science hippies" is probably my favorite running gag in these videos
Eventually it will be in our dictionaries. 🤓
I mean, it does accurately describe biologists.
When I was still a kid my mom found an abandoned baby possum (opossum and possum are both correct last I checked). The local possum rescue told us they were too full to take him but we could take care of him for a year and then release him into the wild. They told us what to do and what to feet him. We gave him a combination of cat food and insects from our garden. He LOVED snails. I named him Smudge and after a year we took him out to a wilderness preserve, far away from the road and let him go. It was very sweet. We did our best to make sure he never became domesticated. Only interacting when we needed to change his enclosure.
I'm glad you did the work, I feel like a lot of people rescue wild animals with good intentions, but then treat them like pets and expect them to do just fine once released
Opossum is the original name, while possum is a regional dialect. It gets confusing since it's also used for a bunch of completely different marsupials in Australia.
It's like the hawk/buzzard/vulture thing. Or elk/moose/wapiti. Makes it complicated to talk about animals online, but using scientific names feels awkward. Yay dialects!
the way the snake writhes makes me wonder if it's saying "I'm sick, dying of some terrible neurological disease, don't eat me".
It’s probably this. It’s probably done to signal that they ate something poisonous and that if they eat them, they will also be poisoned so they will back off.
It'd be kinda crazy if snakes knew what prions were.
@@spugintrntl thing about evolution is that the animal doesn't need to know why something works as long as it does
What’s funny is hognoses are famous for overacting, if you flip em over they’ll go belly up again and make a whole show of it. Just full on “Nu-huh! I’m dead!! See??”
humans appear to be using the same strategy now days.
The fact that they eat mice, cockroaches, and other pests specifically is a very good reason to keep them around vs. driving them off.
Yes! Although I don't often see them around my apartment complex, I know they're around, and that makes me happy. It also reminds me to keep my kitty on her harness when we go outside for walk time at night.
Opossums also eat a lot of ticks. It's good having them around.
Opossums have also been known to chow down on litters of barn kittens. =>[.]
@@Raycheetah Cats eat baby opossums so that seems fair. Nature is brutal. Opossums are still beneficial to humans.
And they can't get rabies and other dangerous diseases because of their low body temp
Opossums are simply a delight of a creature. I love them so much. They're uhhhh a little goofy and odd but but they are cute. Look at those eyes.
Did you ever get off to the female Opossum from Over the Hedge?
No they aren't. They're vicious and can tear you to pieces with those teeth. They're nasty too.
@@adidasfan360 what a thing to say
@adidasfan360 You know those gifs where it has a character just staring down at their phone looking disappointed? That's how I feel.
@@adidasfan360Just did right now
"A tardigrade masquerading as Barney" literally the best line on the internet this month.
Thanks for making these fun and staggeringly well edited videos Ze Frank.
I miss your old stuff but I understand the channel pivot and am glad you are still making thought provoking videos. I mean I consider myself quite the biology layman and this is the first time me learning about Opossum's docking sperm!
Years ago, some neighbors of ours had a large opossum “playing dead” on their front steps. It was there for HOURS. They had to put up a sign explaining what was going on so other people would leave it alone.
I trapped one by accident trying to relocate coons and the little guy took 2 hours to leave an open cage lol
I have a possum who comes around before dawn for snacks. It has been fun learning what the little guy likes and doesn't like to eat. He's a very tidy eater and spits the cherry seeds back into the dish. However, he does not care for broccoli or cauliflower and will fling the pieces around the porch in disgust. Canned and dry cat food are always welcomed.
Extremely relatable
I'm an opossum rehabber. They love scrambled eggs and yogurt. NOT Greek yogurt or yogurt with artificial sweetener. Flavored yogurt is fine. My rehabs always love strawberry. Blueberry is hit or miss.
I love how their front view is so cute but their side view looks like a crack addict.
and dont even mention that tail!
They're nasty right at the front.
Walked outside one morning to see one cornered in my dogs water bowl. Apparently they soaked all night, looked like an old oil change with water in it. They always sway like they're about to fall over.
@@primesspct2 Fun fact! The tail is more like a giant finger since it is prehensile, complete with a unique fingerprint at the end. We're just biased due to seeing the appearance when it's is straight as looking "rat-like", due to the greater plethora of rodents and tails used for balance, compared to a 5th prehensile limb. Sometimes in captivity I've even seen opissums hold tails and walk together with others they're close with, which is pretty cute.
You know, they would be one invasive species I would welcome up here in Nova Scotia. SO MANY TICKS
We had a pet opossum named Arty. He was a big, big boy. He really opened my eyes up to how misunderstood these poor creatures are. They don't get rabies, they're immune to snake bites, and they eat all sorts of pests. Also, no, they aren't carriers for disease - the only way they spread anything is by eating something that was infected, before another animal gets into their droppings. Save the opossums... they deserve better.
Well said!
They are awesome, only thing that is a total legend and has basically 0 evidence is that they eat a lot of ticks.
@@AleXxTM123 No, they do eat ticks, although not hundreds of thousands. They also eat worms, grubs, mosquito, flies and bird eggs. I never heard the snake bite thing, but due to lower body temperature, they are almost, but not always , immune to rabies. Ground hogs do the frozen thing too. 😀
@@AleXxTM123 Opossums in the clade Didelphini are well known to be resistant to snake venom due to endogenous circulating inhibitors which target metalloproteinases and phospholipase
@@AleXxTM123 Opossums do not harbor diseases normally found in dogs and cats, such as distemper, parvovirus, or feline hepatitis. All warm-blooded mammals can contract rabies, but the only confirmed reports of rabid opossums come from the white eared opossum only found in Brazil. Scientists believe that a natural body temperature too low to support the rabies virus is the reason.
I volunteered at a local Wildlife Rehab center, and we had 2 Virginia Opossums that were habituated (couldn't be released), so they were education animals. When I was sweeping their room they'd wander after me looking for bugs or just sticking their nose in everything they could find. When stinkbugs got inside we'd feed them to 'em. My favorite was a male named Aldo - he liked getting his ears scritched. It was the coolest volunteer job ever!
Thanks for featuring my Hognose video! I have loved your content for over 15 years now!
I love opossums. They make wonderful neighbors, coming to visit, sharing a bit of cat food, exploring here and there, never trying to do anything hurtful or harmful.
I’m losing my mind over the fact that they carry leaves and twigs in their tails.
I don't know why I was surprised to see that considering I've known for years that they hang upside-down in trees by their tails, you know? Like, how did I not think they could do more with them? XD
Why am I just finding this out! Feel like my life has been one long series of lies!
Why is that strange?
@@shelleyoxenhorn833 Because it's not a commonly known thing. Also, most people wouldn't expect them to want or need to carry leaves and twigs. Much less with their tails.
@@NatYourAverageNerd Only babies can hang from their tails. Frank even says this, adults get to be too heavy to hang from their tails. Also never grab an Opossum by the tail, it's very easy to just pull the vertebrae apart.
Sperm Train 2: Sticky Situations
Two get on board but only one gets off
Coming in theaters near you this Valentines.
I'm sorry, but the sequel should clearly be called Sperm Train 2: Sloppy Seconds
Coming you say...
@@silkdust8069And always too soon!
you videos are literally life man. i hate bugs and not real fond of nature but i find every video you put out, be it about possoms or tarantulas, simply beautiful. thank you for educating us via humor. thats how i learn. from a 51 yr old woman ......thanks teach! and space gopher got me lmao
"Haunt me Elmo" doll fucking well laid me out. I'm posting this from Limbo. Well done sir!
*salutes North America's Only Marsupial*
The Virginia Opossum is not North America's only Marsupial. North America includes Northern America, Central America and The Caribbean which results in North America having around 7 species of Marsupials all being Opossums.
@@bazzboda4785 yeah it always bugs me, people sometimes say "North America" to mean "US and Canada" and act like Mexico and Central America are a whole separate thing. Maybe you could make an argument for CA but Mexico? It's even more arbitrary than the divide between Europe and Asia since it's based entirely on country borders.
@@Ringtail: I've never seen Mexico excluded from North America. It's more likely that someone is repeating a claim that was made in ignorance of the much more distant rainforest areas of Mexico than anything.
Sort of like saying that the Gila Monster is North America's only venomous lizard, not realizing that there's more than one species of Gila Monster.
One of the few animals that cannot contract/carry rabies. Very misunderstood animals. Opossums are great.
*few mammals but yeah. They’re pretty cool little dudes
Squirrels being another.
Don't they do something with ticks too?
This is the coolest thing about opossums! Rabies is the scariest virus right above Ebola. It’s amazing that they are able to do this, and their defense mechanism is so badass. Plus they’re adorable so that’s cool too!
@@AnadyiaHowellYes, they eat ticks so good to have around.
Opossum: The kinda weird kid who's had to partially raise themselves because both or single parent works all the time, who occasionally smells and awkwardly stares at things because they don't know what it is, but is wholesome as kittens and grows up to be hot in a feral but tame kind of way. Trash goblin who cleans up good.
Possum: Probably drunk on fermented fruit, falls out of trees and off fences but somehow never breaks anything, doesn't have a brain to suffer brain damage, will screech at things but almost never bite, and is generally a tolerable annoyance because you can just shoo them away and sometimes they're cute.
Pos'm: Britney git! Pos'm! Gown girl! It got teeth but it dint use em! Good girl! Pos'm stew tonite.
I read these in all three accents presented, and it was a delight. XD
So possums are just typical Aussies.
One time my mom found a "dead" opossum in the yard, so she got the dogs inside and a shovel to hurl it into the woods. But, when she got back it was gone.
She came back inside utterly amazed and asked: "What kind of animal could play possum like that???"
🤣 Did you tell her?
My favorite thing about breeding Hognoses is when you're early enough to watch them hatch, and sometimes one will stick it's head out of their egg and then instantly "die" because the first thing it saw was a giant monster staring at it. Baby hognoses trying to play dead is one of the cutest things in the world, even though it does make me feel a little bit bad for scaring them so bad they think they're about to die.
And then you sometimes get one like Miss Nibbles who comes out of the egg and immediately lunges at the nearest finger with an open mouth. Literally two seconds old and already so full of Righteous Anger.
I adore hognose snakes. Mine is usually pretty chill unless he is going to shed. Then he is full of piss and vinegar 😂. He will hiss up a storm if I try to feed him, (when it's not clearly obvious if he is going into a shed cycle).
Sometimes his hissing sounds like a little sneeze.
And sometimes he hisses at his frozen/thawed mice to show those dead mice who the boss is 🤣 I just adore these guys. ❤
When I was in middle school, I walked every day and once saw an opossum playing dead under a tree along the usual route. It was the only time so far that I can recall ever seeing one with blue-green eyes instead of the usual black, and I wish I had a cellphone on me at that time (but it was before I got a nice one, not just the early cellular wireless edition pre-AT&T merger). In other instances years later, I've seen opossums in my dad's backyard or in my own neighborhoods, always wanting scrap foods or just doing their little opossum things in the evenings. I know some folks think they're hideous, but I've always thought they were cute, and I've yet to have a bad encounter with one.
I also find it endearing in a sad way that they will hide how stressed out they are until you find them truly dead from being overwhelmed by anxiety. Don't stress them out, folks. They're scared and just want food and friends like most people.
beautifully said 🙏thank you for being the voice of the voiceless
Have to wonder if the eye color was due to partial blindness. Nevertheless - - cool experience. They do freak people out who don't know about them.
When my oldest son was 3 or 4, we used to put a tin of cat food out for the neighborhood cat, some of the kids named Edward.
One night I was in the kitchen and my son checked right outside the front door to see if the cat was eating the food.
He came running into the kitchen and said "Mom, there's a big rat outside."
So I checked and it was an opossum hiding under a lawn chair 😂. I told him just don't go out without me or get to close to it and it will leave on it's own, it just wants some cat food too. 😊
my mother's dog brought a live opossum into the house last weekend. the power had been out and that's what all the lights came back on to see.
the opossum was fine, we watched it gently keel over every time the dog got within 3ft of it, then we carefully carried it outside with a snow shovel.
this was at 1AM monday morning, at least no one had to work on memorial day.
also, the dogs are not free-roam, the opossum got into their pen.
"way to screw things up Australia"
For some reason, America got Australia's Possum.
We're happy to share.
Australia, Antarctica and South America were once connected. Marsupials developed on this continent and only this continent. Then it broke into the current three. Antarctica drifted off to the south pole and whatever animals once lived there went extinct. South America (still marsupial exlusive at that time) collided with North America and from there, placental mammals came, replacing the marsupials (appearently they are at an evolutionary disadvantage) until they went extinct. Except the opossum. For some reason, this rascal not only survived the placentapocalypse, it was so successfull that it spread to North America, too.
@@valentinmitterbauer4196The fact that they breed like rabbits, unlike many other marsupials, definitely would have helped.
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 That's close to what happened but not exactly. Marsupials originated in what's now South America, then a single marsupial migrated to Australia while it was still connected to South America. That one species diversified into all the marsupials that Australia has now. The closest relative of the Australian marsupials is the monito del monte, a tiny South American marsupial.
@@Jpteryx yep the monito del monte literally tiny mountain monkey is a very basal marsupial, opossums (didelphis)are odd because they went to conquer north america too amazingly
Finally a Ze Frank possum video! I love these creatures. They are grossly misunderstood and adorable to watch. They eat thousands of ticks and other nasties, which is a great reason to have them around. I had one (see my icon) who lived in a big pine near my patio. I called him Simon and early morning when was having coffee he’d peer at me. I began putting fruit and veg out for him. Soon he was waiting for his breakfast and would nom away happily while I had my coffee. He especially loved marshmallows. The sad thing is these delightful bebbee’s only live about 2 years in the wild.
Even shorter if you're feeding them marshmallows 😢
They were only a treat. When you eat trash and your life expectancy is two years, a few marshmallows isn’t going to hurt in the grand scheme of things😉
I think I read the tick thing was debunked ? They eat some but there was something off about the study, the numbers of what they eat. I can't remember exactly. They're still cool to have around. My neighbor puts food scraps out for the resident opossum 😂 It's very chill.
@@metalmamasue3680 I’ve seen that too. Ticks or not, they’re adorable❤️
Wrong about the tick thing, again
The opossum song at the end was a jam, I immediately dropped to the floor to play dead.
My hubs and I saved an opossum from the middle of the highway… he was surrounded by his squished family. His name is Paulie and he loooooves being an indoor baby. He has free rein of the house and has many beds. He is litter boxes trained, and while we put him outside twice a day, he busted in our screen door to get inside. He loves the domesticated life! We have had alllllllll the animals in our life together and he is one of the most special.
That poor thing must have been traumatized from seeing his entire family dead around him before you picked him up. I hope Paulie lives his best life with such loving humans like you.
That is heart-warming.
@@NatYourAverageNerd second that with all my heart
I saved three baby opossums whose mother had died crossing a road. They were still attached to her and I don't understand how they lived through that.
@@Golgi-Gyges Mama had some help from on high, perhaps.
Friend of mine had a pet opossum.
Cute as hell. Every time I'd come over, I would see it playing dead in a corner somewhere.
After enough visits it would only play dead when I directly looked at it. Then only when I'd pet it. Eventually it realized I wasn't trying to eat it and stopping doing that. lol
😂
lol, this is so wholesome
@@ntielman2072 I mean, not going to lie... there were times when I was tempted to just go "ooga booga" out of the blue and see if it would fall over and play dead. lol
@@AdamBladeTaylor 😂
We need so many more of those "looks like a ______" retakes / outtakes. 😂
Tonic immobility (the involuntary freeze response, the second one discussed, not the first one) is a big part of why some SA survivors can't move when they're attacked, and wonder why on earth they didn't fight back when they wanted to.
It's important to understand neurobiology when we try to cross-examine victims, and unfortunately we're pretty bad at it. There's a good piece by a Dr. Rebecca for US law enforcement on the neurobiology of trauma for those who want to understand how this response plays out in humans. There's a huge difference between the choice not to move and the involuntary response.
Of course it makes sense that some people freeze with fear. It's not really all that hard to understand. Survival instincts kick in dependent on how someone is wired genetically & emotionally to react. How many millions in "research" for how many renewed years of grants in "free" taxpayers money did it take to arrive at this "scientific" conclusion? 😅
@@kathyflorcruz552 I 100% agree with you that it really isn't hard to understand freezing or fawning as a fear response but sadly so so many people don't seem to get it that I can also see why it makes sense to search for more concrete scientific proof to combat those that seem to view fighting to the death or running for your life as the only reasonable response to SA.
@@kathyflorcruz552 why would you want LESS knowledge on SA?
Wow, that makes a lot of sense
Oh, the joy of a fresh Frank feature!
I'd been suffering True Facts withdrawals so I had a nightmare the other night in which Frank denounced True Facts then joined the cast of a Friends remake.
Now I feel safe again.
Badger that shrunk in the wash is my favorite one xD
Thank you, Ze Frank, for showing me how the Opposum do.
I cant even image how hard you work, ZeFrank. Straight can't imagine, my attention span and work ethic simply could not create these things. It's not even that I'm not funny or clever, it's that I can't be bothered to look for anything longer than 5 or 7 minutes. You find such great clips and photos on top of your phenomenal writing. Thank you for all your effort
sounds like you may have ADHD/ADD. worth talking to a professional. a friend did after so many years of being undiagnosed and now she's happy and effective as never in her life (her words, not mine)
I´d like just to point out that the opossum isn´t the land mammal with most teeth, in fact it´s the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) also know as tatu-canastra here in South America. They have around 80 to 100 teeth.
Wow! Amazing!
Sometimes I notice I'm not laughing as much when these episodes come out, but I honestly think it's because I've just "adjusted" to your video style
Like during the sperm section you nonchalantly referred to the cells as "little bastards" and I had to go back and process "wait. That was fucking hilarious" because it didn't even phase me. Keep doing what you're doing man, I'll never get over just how good your content is lmfao
Favourite channel of ever on anywhere. It scratches all the right spots in my brain.
A long time ago, my dog brought us a young possum. He was holding the still very alive possum by the scruff of its neck, he didn't want to hurt it, he just wanted to show it to us.
We let it go, but it and its family occasionally stopped by our yard again every so often for the next several years.
8:44 Snake what's wrong? Snake? SNAAAAAKE!!!!
Hey Ze Frank I love your content. Even though you might not see my comment, I just want you to know that on this sea of crappy content that exists on this platform, you are a safe island. Your quality, entertainment and humor, combined with actually interesting facts and backed up by science do a really great video. Thank you for making my day better.
I have lots of opossum in my area. They hardly bug me but they do occasionally make their way into my house. The nice thing about them is they are easy to pick up by the tail and are easy to chuck outside. What i find mysterious is cat's won't mess with them. I have seen a cat and an opossum walk past each other without so much as a nod.
Love the fierce back beat........Opossum!
Omg! A new ZeFrank always means it’s going to be an excellent day!
I stay now for the credits just to see if he has a new catchy tune!!! ❤
.....
Opossum!
.....
One of the absolute best nature videos I've ever seen! (I'm 60 years old). Informative, creative, funny, and cool. Keep it up and keep them coming!! Protect our cool possums. They are no threat to humans. Thanks!
i had a nasty day at work today and then i find a new ze frank about OPOSSUMS. thanks for making my day ;)
Opossums are such a good animal, weird little guys designed to be silly
Nothing better than a new video from zefrank
Incorrect. Two new videos from ZeFrank are 100% better!
Glad to see opossums getting more love on the internet lately.
I actually love Possums. I live in North Georgia and these little fury things get HUGE. My wife caught one sneaking around on the back porch and tried to sweep it off with the broom. She was hurling cuss words and it kept hissing and snarling back. It was funny to watch. She gave up and said, "Fine! You just do your thing but stay away from the trash cans!"😂
Ha! Thats my dog Gustav in the video! The big German Shephard! Made my day seeing him in there.!
Absolutely love your vids brother. I couldn't imagine the amount of footage you go through to do these for us but I get excited every time I see a little blue dot next to your name. Keep up the awesome work mate.
Love those little blue dots!
@@llofdarkwater9152 😂😂
im so happy i exist during the same time as this guy. im sure in a few hundred years this guy’s channel is gonna reemerge and people are gonna be so sad to realize he doesn’t post anymore
Some time ago a video from Andreas Kay showed up on my recommended (True facts: Leafhoppers and Friends).
And I did feel sad that he won't post anymore. 😥
He may find a way. Where there's the internet, there is Ze Frank. Maybe he'll be come A.I. Z
Love this channel glad we’re not running out of animals to learn about anytime soon.
we are running out of animals in the real world, sadly. most of them have been documented, so ZeFrank will have enough material to keep posting for years after we've killed them all. I am not sure I will be able to watch then though ...
I'll never forget seeing Large Marge carrying her first leaf bundle acrosd our patio and under our deck. Miss her so much.
I'm so glad you included Hognoses and their "bleh, I'm dead!" performances in this
Love snakes and hognose are a personal favorite ❤
I just couldn't stop smiling and laughing from start to finish. Thank you 😂❤
7 minutes is the earliest I've ever been for a true facts video
True* Facts
🤣🤣 So many great laughs. Have a great weekend!! Thank you Fe Frank and crew. And commenters with their own stories. It's such a good day!! ENJOY!!
We’ve had baby opossums on occasion…in the spring we’ll check the pouches of ones hit by cars. We’ve released 7 that made it, amazing creatures!!! 💕
"Sperm train"
"Flesh bees"
I learn so many new things from Frank.
whaaat!? A caption-ready Zefrank video release? This is a new milestone
So happy you featured my favorite snake the Hognose! Would you possibly cover Jumping spiders? I’ve been thinking about purchasing a spiderling. They supposedly make great pets! 😊 Love your videos as always! I’m currently battling brain cancer, and your videos never fail to make me smile and laugh ❤
I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but I'm wishing you strength and courage in your battle! Remember to drink clean water, eat non-pesticide treated fruits and veggies, and maintain an optimistic outlook on life. It may not happen overnight, but I believe that you'll win in the end, hon!
I love jumping spiders too. He did do a video on the mating dance of the peacock spider, a very fancy jumper. You can also google 'Bob the spider hunter, jumping spider'. He's done quite a few videos on them, and kept a couple in the house to reproduce - very sweet couple.
Sending warmest positive vibes for your health. ❤Take care.
@@NatYourAverageNerd thank you 😊 I kicked it once, 12 years ago, so I’m pretty hopeful to do it again! The chemo is showing that it is starting to work, so I’m happy!
@@chezmoi42 Cool, I’ll check them out, thank you 😊
I always anxiously await your new videos. When one comes out it absolutely makes my day. I know you always thank whomever you get your information from at the end of your videos but I want to thank you guys for doing what you do. I can watch them over and over and still laugh and smile each time. Great content. Keep up the amazing job ya'll do and yes I am southern lol. ❤❤❤
This is my first time to your channel, @ZeFrank. What a delight! Great voice, clever Jenny jokes, fun bleeped bits, and outtakes! Subscribed.
3:21 I was taking a drink of coffee when you said "zombie gummy bears" 😂 Something bad almost happened is all I'll say
OMG!! I BEAT THE NOTIFICATION!!!! This is one I’ve been waiting for… thanks ze frank!!!
And Jerry too I guess.
"Scale 1 to dead"
AS levels this year, got me dead
I rescued a baby opossum after its mom abandoned it; possums are like that, if a kit falls off, it gets left behind. And the fact that eat ticks makes them greater to me, I just love possums!
Usually, the mom doesn't even realize when a small baby falls off. When they get bigger, they drop off on purpose to live their own lives.
“Jerry, those are pool noodles” made me laugh harder than it should 😂😂😂
It's always a pleasure to come across one of Ze Frank's videos!
Non-existent babe, wake up! New zefrank video just dropped!
Thank you for speaking about my species,sir.
Was that sarcastic or....?
@@furiouskaiser9914 *plays dead*
Dang it! Why does this always seem to happen when I try to interact with introverts?
@@furiouskaiser9914 *DEAD*
Speaking of stink...
I caught one in a live trap. While very hung over, I was letting it go. I got a wiff of it, and the smell was of rotting meat, and not just a faint smell. I was dry-heaving for about 10 minutes afterward, even though I couldn't smell it. Just the thought of the smell filling my lungs sent me to the toilet for another round of wrenching my guts out.
I just got done catching raccoons last week, and this week 2 opossums have wandered in. They're definitely stinky
@TheSaintBigFoot raccoons is what I was after. Too many in the creek behind the house. One huge one that's been the 'ring leader' in several dog attacks. Vicious critters, for sure. Even amongst themselves.
"It's like a game of musical chairs. Except with nipples. And to the death"
Flawlessly tossed word salad 👌
I'm sure this is probably the n-th video of yours I've posted this on, but I really like your videos when I'm having a panic attack. You have a very soothing voice, and for some reason education distracts me from my own unpleasant mind. I guess I'm trying to say "thank you" using extra words.
Yeees new video❤ frikking love your kind of humor
Bro the dog playing dead caught me off guard 🤣 good video as always
“Jerry. That’s a dog!” 😂
Finally, the hognose snake gets long overdue respect and attention.
Frank always hits the mark👍🏻
@zefrank been following you for a while sport racer. You’re still kicking ass and I’m here for it