Staff at an animal shelter in South Carolina got quite a surprise when a very strange-looking "dog" showed up unannounced.
What's happening?
The Greenville Humane Society (@gvlhumane) posted a video of a curious little intruder on TikTok.
"We saw a WEIRD looking dog today (our opossum friend was safely returned to the woods outside)," the caption joked.
@gvlhumane We saw a WEIRD looking dog today (our oposssum friend was safely returned to the woods outside) #humanesociety #adoptdontshop #vetmed #possum #opossum ♬ Jet2 Advert - ✈️A7-BBH | MAN 🇬🇧
The video shows a staff member taking the utterly remorseless trespasser from the top of a cage, wrapped in a towel.
It is then seen hissing at its liberators in the corner of a fence, evidently perturbed to be taken away from the food.
Why is the incident concerning?
In this case, the incident made for good content for the shelter's excellent social media team and caused no real harm.
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Opossums are useful little critters well-adapted to living alongside people. However, it should be noted that their purported proclivity for eating ticks by the thousand is, unfortunately, a myth.
They help in other ways, as a one-opossum clean-up crew, and as both predator and prey.
However, it's harmful for wild animals to become overly accustomed to humans. If they lose their fear of people and see them as a source of food, conflict inevitably ensues.
Opossums pose absolutely no danger to people, but an emboldened opossum can be considered a nuisance when it invades a yard seeking food.
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Cats 🐱 They are natural seed dispersers, but homeowners tend to view opossums less favorably because they have to pick up after them.
What can be done to prevent conflicts with opossums?
Fortunately, it really doesn't require much for people to be able to live harmoniously alongside opossums.
In the vast majority of cases, they should just be left alone. The exceptions to this are injured or young opossums, which should be handled by the nearest wildlife center.
Supporting important local conservation work and helping to spread the word about mitigating conflicts between animals and people is the best course of action.
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