I don’t think I have to make the case that possums like persimmons. That seems to be pretty much common knowledge, even way up in Chicago:
“Moonlight hunts, hound dogs, and possums grown fat on persimmons and roasted with sweet potatoes, are justly celebrated in songs and stories about country life down south.”
At least that’s the way this Web site puts it.
We don’t do hunts by moonlight or otherwise, and we don’t eat possums with sweet potatoes or without. We do have a dog with at least some hound in him, and we do live in the country down south. And the possums are eating persimmons.
In fact, a possum has nearly stripped the persimmon tree I mentioned in an earlier post. I counted four persimmons left on the tree today. A couple of days ago a lot of the fruit was gone, but there were still quite a few out on the long, thin branches. When I saw the possum in the tree a few days ago I wondered what it would do about them. Now I think I know.
I mentioned in another earlier post about finding small branches lying on the ground under the tree with ends neatly chewed into small cone shapes. I think the possum has been chewing the branches off, letting them fall to the ground, and then climbing down and eating the persimmons. It doesn’t seem to find all of them, though. For the last few days Zeke, the part hound dog, has been sniffing out the persimmons the possum misses and eating them.
I haven’t actually seen the possum eating persimmons in the tree, chewing branches off the tree, or eating persimmons off the ground, but I’m pretty sure the case has been made.
I guess it’s lot like the light in the refrigerator. You never really see it turn off when the door is closed. Same with the opossum and the persimmons. And election results.
The gray squirrels do the same thing as your opossums, Mark, but they do it with very young maple samaras in the spring. I’ll find a whole small branch from a maple tree loaded with tender young samaras laying on the ground, and later it will have disappeared. I, like you, have never actually seen the bandits carry away the loot, but there’s no other explanation.
Pablo — Every time I saw the possum in the tree, he had an expression like, “Who, me?” And he grinned.
Scott — We have some squirrels and some maples around here. I think I’ll try to look for that this spring.
Yes, you’ve made the case. Although, now I wonder if Zeke climbs that tree when he is out and about, and you can’t find him. He’s chewing on the persimmon and laughing, knowing you’ll blame it on the opossums!
Robin Andrea — Ha! The only problem is that I’m not sure he has ever figured out that the persimmons on the ground came from up in the tree. On the other hand, I once saw my dog Jesse, who I have posted about, standing on her rear legs reaching up into a persimmon tree to pluck fruit from the branches.