How to identify opossum tracks

Opossums are known to be marsupials. They do have a pouch that they use to carry their young. The female is known as jill while the young is called joey. The head has a small and primitive brain with a narrow muzzle that ends in the pink nose with jaws that have 50 teeth. The front feet have five clawed toes while the hind feet have four clawed toes with a thumb that is opposable. The prehensile, naked and grasping tail is used while climbing. They give birth in the spring and in the summer. The young, when it leaves the pouch, will start to ride on the back of its mother. The opossum do live a secretive and solitary life. They wander from dusk to dawn while looking for their food and then they spend the daytime sleeping in a hollow log or in a brush pile. When they are threatened, the opossums may growl, climb a tree, bite or hiss. Sometimes they feign death.

The opossums have five bulbous toes on their front foot, and they are splayed out in their tracks as if they are the rays of the sun. The toes all have an equal length. The rear foot track comes with the four fingers and the thumb which is opposing and it points towards the body. The thumb is very apparent in the tracks.

For the right and the left side, the track has free space, and this is found between the first, second and third digit compared to the third, fourth or fifth digit. For the gait, it can be a slow walk or a trot that has a stride that can be around 9 inches. However, this can register in a track indirectly.

The opossums are found in urban backyards, croplands, woodlands or shrublands. They are omnivores and they eat many things, including eggs, birds, mammals, snakes, frogs and crayfish. Tracking the animals may also involve looking for the trails, scent markings, beds, feeding signs, scat and tracks. This will involve knowing what the animals did and where they have gone.

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