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"Dum Dee-dum Dee-dum... Huh? Oh. Oh crap. Human. Um. Um... Why am I not dead? Aren't humans supposed to be the apex predator? Uh... 'Sup human? I'm... I'm just gonna turn around niiiiice and slow and go right back where I came from. You don't kill me, I don't try to bite or scratch you, everybody's a winner. 'Kay?"

Catawampus wrote:I get the impression that opossums are not exactly the brightest of critters, nor the most responsive to stimuli.

Yeah, they seem to be big on low-key reactions (or lack thereof), "playing dead", and live-and-let-live.

Two stories:

(1) Years ago, my wife and I were living in a rented house. We'd gotten into the habit of feeding a couple of the local cats (one a neighbors' who didn't care for the kid-chaos at their place, and hung out with us) and another a feral. We had a big bag of kitty-kibble in the garage, from which I'd scoop out a cup every day or so and fill the dish for our guests. One day I walked into the garage, reached down into the bag, and felt something brush my hand. I said "Gwen, there's a critter in the cat food!", gently pushed the bag over on its side, and tapped it with my foot. Out scurried a little baby 'possum. It looked at us, then trotted away into the hedge and vanished. It never seemed to be terribly upset or scared (it could have bitten me when I reached into the bag and touched it, but it didn't).

(2) More recently, my wife was out in back working around one of the sheds. Down from the almond tree came a momma 'possum, followed by about four babies. They calmly came down to ground level, walked right past my wife (one of the babies actually climbed over her foot), over to the fence, and up and into the neighbor's yard. No fear, no running-away, not even any real acknowledgement that she was there... just "hum de dum, let's go over there now..."

Apparently possums are almost as high-strung as shrews.

If you touch a shrew, it'll drop dead from heart failure, like as not.

Possums don't actually "play possum" - they pass out when stressed.

If you were to give one a bath (somehow), I bet they'd have really soft fur.

Oh! Moles. Moles have SOFT fur. My brother used to have a Chihuahua, and she was at my place because he couldn't keep her where he was living. One day, I saw that dog tossing a poor little mole around like a ragdoll. So I took the mole away from the dog, cradled it in my shirt while petting it a bit while I found a place for it to dig.

They also are much lighter than they look. I had a hamster about the same size, and he weighed several times what that mole weighed.

Aside from the star nosed variety, moles are kind of cute.

I've heard chinchillas have some of the softest fur out there.

GlytchMeister wrote:I've heard chinchillas have some of the softest fur out there.

Oh, yeah. Lovely stuff. Like velvet.

And expensive.

You might wonder why fur that comes from little critters that breed like rodents, which they are, would be expensive.

Well, someone i knew many years ago decided to raise chinchillas for the fur. {This would have been in the latter Sixties/early Seventies.}

He discovered that they have an unusual defensive reaction - well, a not-uncommon one, taken to the extreme.

As a mutual friend recounted it to me, he discovered that, like many critters, a frightened chinchilla sheds, to make it harder to get a grip on it, with the fur coming away when it's grabbed.

He lived under the main flight path for Hartsfield International here in Atlanta...

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Oh, yeah. Lovely stuff. Like velvet.

And expensive.

The Incas wore vampire bat fur as a symbol of their high rank. I never saw anything on just how they went about gathering that, though. I'd imagine that it must be quite the process.

Second-gen Lytro light-field camera (allows you to change what's in focus after the picture is taken), 71% off on Boing Boing:



If i had a little more money, for that price i might...

Man, they're just givin' 'em away...

Catawampus wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote:Oh, yeah. Lovely stuff. Like velvet.

And expensive.

The Incas wore vampire bat fur as a symbol of their high rank. I never saw anything on just how they went about gathering that, though. I'd imagine that it must be quite the process.

Wow...I can't imagine tryiing to skin enough of those tiny lil' bastards to make anything big enough to wear...

Jabberwonky wrote:

Catawampus wrote:The Incas wore vampire bat fur as a symbol of their high rank. I never saw anything on just how they went about gathering that, though. I'd imagine that it must be quite the process.

Wow...I can't imagine tryiing to skin enough of those tiny lil' bastards to make anything big enough to wear...

Small yields from each harvest... have to piece many of them together to make something as large as a handkerchief... intended to be worth as a symbol of status and rank... wearers limited to the elite, who tend to be egotistical types...

Hmmm. A vampire-fur-covered codpiece for the king?

Jabberwonky wrote:Wow...I can't imagine tryiing to skin enough of those tiny lil' bastards to make anything big enough to wear...

It wasn't even the skin, from what I recall, but the woven fur. Which makes me wonder if they skinned the things and then trimmed the fur off of the skin, or if they simply shaved the bats like shearing a sheep.

Years ago, on some of my off-time, I helped out a group who was studying vampire bats by tagging and tracking them. So I got to see a fair number of the little critters. We'd find where we thought some were roosting, put out a water dish, and then nab and tag them when they came out to drink. They are much, much tinier than most people realise.

Yeah, I saw some vampire bats at the zoo. Not big at all.

In fact, the only species of bat I can think of is the flying fox. There are others, I'm sure, but I don't know them by name.

Alkarii wrote:Yeah, I saw some vampire bats at the zoo. Not big at all.

In fact, the only species of bat I can think of is the flying fox. There are others, I'm sure, but I don't know them by name.

Pippestrelle, brown bat ... i used to know more.

Flying Fox, eh?

Bats!

Hanging around.
More of the same.
Taking a drink.

Yeah, the night-vision camera I used wasn't exactly up to current standards. But it worked.

Catawampus wrote:Bats!

Hanging around.
More of the same.
Taking a drink.

Yeah, the night-vision camera I used wasn't exactly up to current standards. But it worked.

No batses, pleez.... but I do like bunnies, kitties, and squirrelses...

Watching Porky's for the first time. Funny as hell.

So I went up to the mountain again. I hadn't been up there in a couple of weeks. Sunday, my brother and his father-in-law went up there and built the trap, but didn't set it, so they'll get used to it. Today, we baited it with sour corn, so the deer will leave it alone.

At one point, my brother and I took a hog panel to reinforce the trap, while his father-in-law stayed at the house his late mother lived in, reviewing trail camera videos.

As the two of us were heading back to the truck, we saw some hog tracks heading up the path in the general direction of the truck... And those tracks hadn't been there earlier when we took the panel down to the trap. That hog had gotten close to where we were.

Also, just a little while ago... My sister-in-law went into labor. They have to do a c section this time, because they believe there was an adhesion, and apparently the only way to know is to perform surgery. But, meh, I'm gonna have another niece soon.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:

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"Underroos!"