You may remember that there was no post on Monday of this week. It was a national holiday here in Australia; 25 April is Anzac Day. Well, guess what? There will be no post next Monday either, it’s another holiday. This time, it’s Labour Day here in Queensland and Northern Territory.
All the other states have a day off for Labour Day as well, albeit on different days. I did say we have a lot of public holidays in Australia.
So, that made me wonder, what kind of post do I want to end the week with that is going to sit here on the front page of the blog until next Wednesday? Maybe something scary?
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Or something cute?I decided to go for cute.
Possums
Talking of cute, there has been a healthy debate over on my post called Possums and Opossums: Australia and America. All Explained as to which country has the cutest possums. My money, for sure, is on Australian possums, but some people do disagree.
There is no doubt that they are completely different animals though, the only thing they have in common is that they are both marsupials. So let’s take a look at a couple of those differences through the wonder that is video and at the same time, try to decide which is the cutest.
North American opossum
As one of my readers pointed out, the North American opossum, when it feels threatened, plays dead. There are many videos on YouTube showing opossums pretending to have ‘rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible’ when they haven’t. Here’s one of them…
Nice trick, but it doesn’t make the opossum look particularly cute.
Here’s a wonderful short movie about an opossum, clutching a pole somewhere near LA, pondering life in this massive universe…
The Possum from theWilsonian on Vimeo.
Well, yes, he was quite cute I suppose.
Australian possum
On the other hand, our Australian possums do not play dead at all. When they feel threatened, they make this noise…
Looked quite cute though, all the same.
Some people don’t think possums are cute at all, they hate them. Other people love them, as you will see here along with more possums to judge the cuteness…
Possums & People from Magnetic Island TV on Vimeo.
Well, those possums looked very cute.
So we have North American opossums looking not particularly cute and quite cute, compared with the Australian possums looking quite cute and very cute.
Undeniable proof, once and for all, that Australian possums are the cutest.
Let’s see, both are extremely greedy and can be destructive.
However–Our American possums are terrible on the eyes, I have to admit that! I’d take an Aussie possum any day.
Ha, ha; precise, to the point, and very accurate.
They like to eat your Weet-bix too!
Well, that’s what happened to us up at Binna Burra (in the hinterland at the back of the Gold Coast). While we were sleeping, one of them unzipped the cabin (tent!) door and tip-toed across to our food box, cracked the code on the combination lock and started munching on our multi-grain Weet-bix! We would have been none the wiser if it hadn’t woken us up to ask where the milk was 🙂
Well the only thing that surprises me is that the possum wasn’t able to find the milk! They are clever little critters. And Weet-bix are quite yummy 🙂 I can see the attraction.
But are they poisonous? Do they seek to lure us close with their cuteness and then turn on us?
Never trust any sort of Australian creature. Even that cute puppy on the beach will kill you.
Of course they are venomous, same as our chickens, guinea pigs and goldfish. Puppies though, they are harmless, honest.
That’s what they want you to think.
🙂