Sapalo Island Opossums Live Slowish and Die Young

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Sapalo is a barrier island off the coast of georgia. It boasts sand dunes and camping, but also opossums that have been there for nearly ten thousand years without any preditors. They're immune to rattlesnake venom. And they enjoy high fertility rates all the way into the ripe old age of four.

Teeth. Tails. Concentric nipples. This not-at-all-rodent has the distinction of being North America’s sole marsupial and so Alie hunted down lauded Opossumologist Dr. Lisa Walsh and launched an absolute torrent of giddy questions. How many ticks do they really eat, can we keep them as pets, how do we all convincingly feign death, opossum vs. possum, fingerprints, orphaned babies, the best possum jokes, the worst ones, venom immunity, bifurcated dongs, space portal vageens, being equally ugly and adorable, the rise of the memes, why we scream at our own asses, and more. Open a space in your heart for these critters.

Follow Dr. Walsh at Twitter.com/spoutsoffacts ,

Donations went to: https://www.kidneyfund.org/ & https://opossumsocietyus.org/

More links and info at alieward.com/ologies/opossumology

Sponsors of Ologies: alieward.com/ologies-sponsors

Transcripts & bleeped episodes at: alieward.com/ologies-extras

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month: www.Patreon.com/ologies

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, pins, totes and now… MASKS. Hi. Yes.

Follow twitter.com/ologies or instagram.com/ologies

Follow twitter.com/AlieWard or instagram.com/AlieWard

Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Transcripts by Emily White of www.thewordary.com/

Website by https://www.kellyrdwyer.com/