- ·e ;t h h ll h - ir t- >r r. lS ae Volume 9 NOVEMBER 15, 1950 Number 11 l · !.h rs ,, e. ?r INCREDIBLE ''BROTHER 'POSSUM , * * * * * * * * * UGLY ACTING I. By James N elson Gowa nJoch C h ie f Biologis t, Louf'! innn D e par t ­ of SNAKES m e nt of \Vild Life n nd F is h eries ut m ,e B y K enneth D. Carla nde r a nd Subject of this article is the most Robert B. 1\loorman b· fantastic, most amusing, most ds I owa S tnte Colle g e misunderstood of all native mam­ by mals of the United States, the opossum. ~d Probably more tall stories are ys told about the hog-nosed snakes T he opossum, one of the few to and the water snakes than any American mammals that ever con­ other harmless kinds. They act tributed a universally used phrase and look more dangerous than the to the English speaking world, poisonous species. "playing 'possum," has entered H og-nosed snakes when cor­ into the folklore, the legend and nered or startled will coil and then the literature of the United expand and flatten the head and States. • • * '!II neck to twice their normal width The life history of the opossum in a fashion suggesting a cobra. has only recently, in some of its be Meanwhile, air is expelled f rom most significant chapters, become b· the inflated body in short violent known. hisses which may easily be con­ Young opossums are born in a - fused with the rattling of a rattle­ virtually embryonic condition, only ae snake. If a person approaches an astounding 12 to 13 days after 181 they will viciously strike-usually mating. :or with a closed mouth. Because of Newborn opossums are actually nd their aggressive habits, hog-nosed less than two-thirds the size of a This mother opossum, when found, was providing t ransport ation facilities for 31 young. snakes are often called puffing ad­ Twenty-one we re riding on her back a nd 10 tiny hairless newborn we re In her pouch. honey bee, and a honey bee is only ders, spreading adders, or blow At least nine of the five·week·old hitc:h·hlkers belonged to some other mother opossum . one-half inch in length. The illus­ snakes. Dr. Ditmars, who has ob­ tration shows, in the scale indi­ served most of the dangerous cated, this comparison. Stated m snakes of the world, states th at another way, four thousand three none of them appear more dan­ Keep Your Head Down In Shooting hundred and twenty newborn opos­ gerous than the hog-nosed snakes. sums (this is spelled out to pre­ And yet it is all bluff. Only rarely is one of the cardinal rules in good clude any idea that the figure is a will a puffing adder bite, and even The difference between a h it and shooting, and its strict observance misprint) are required to weigh then there is no poison or other a miss in wing-shooting often lies must be practiced if the charge of one pound. An opossum may bear danger. in that ver y slight distance be­ shot is to strike the object at 20 young. The mother opposum This pugnacious show is only tween the shooter's cheek and the which the shooter thinks he is can only provide da ir} facilities part of the snake's protective re­ stock of his gun. poin ting. for 12. Excess individuals are sponse. I f the intruder is not There should be no distance at Most gunners realize immedi­ simply surplus crop. They have no driven off or if a person tries to all between the cheek and the ately upon touching off the trig­ social security cards. They die. stock. The expert wing-shot kill the "dangerous" snak e with a ger whether or not the gun was Most astonishing in opossums' makes sure that the gun stock is stick or stone, the snake begins properly pointed. In trap shoot­ life history is tha t when born, against his cheek before he pulls to writhe and twist in realistic ing a few sketchy breaks will warn they are provided with usefully the trigger. This, with practice, death agonies The mouth is held the shooter that he is not holding vigorous front legs a nd highly de­ becomes an instmctive movement wide open and the tongue is per­ right and that he is "scratchm' veloped apparat us for smell. that is one of the prime essentials mitted to trail "lifeless" in the 'em down" with the edge of his Otherwis e they look like no reason­ in good shooting. Raising the dirt and sand. I n a last convulsion pattern. The fellow who shoots able or accepta ble offspring of stock to the cheek allows the the snak e turns on its back and with both eyes open (and this is anything. These trivial c reatures shooter to quickly gain a true then lies motionless, belly up, with the proper method) is more apt to immedia t ely proceed to migrate "sight-picture" and helps him to the mouth open and the tongue raise his head a bit and shoot high under their own power into their refrain from making the all-too­ drooping. The snake can then be than the chap who closes one eye, mother's pouch, where they nurse common error of raising his bead picked up and will show no breath­ for the latter is more inclined to and grow. Speed of growth is JUst before firin~. ing or other movement. Usually "sight" his shotgun rather than prodigious, 1n the first seven da ys it will be tossed off into the bushes Raising the head causes the "point" it. one thousand per cent Milk-fed where it can make its getaway. gunner to shoot high, the most To get a proper "sight-picture" for two months, they begin to peer If left to lie for awhile, it will wait common fault among shotgun in using a shotgun, the gun should inquis itively out of their pouch (Continued on page 86) shooters. "Keep your head down" t Conhnued on pa2e 87) j Cont inued on page R4 ) Page 82 IOWA CONSERVATIONIST - Iowa Conservationist nuts each weekend. During the Published Monthly By The fall of 1946, the dealer in Walnut IOWA CONSERVATION COMMISSION Grove bought for us over 500,000 914 G10nd Avenue Des Moines. Iowa pounds of walnuts. paying the (No Rights Reserved) farmers in his area some $15,000 . • This is a good income from one WM. S. BEARDSLEY . Governor of Iowa '11 small area. BRUCE F. STILES. Director I. es t JAMES R. HARLAN. Editor Mtssouri is by far the biggest LOIS RECKNOR. Ac:sociate Editor tra' walnut-producing s tate in the ca­ rts MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION lion, the heaviest producing area Srnl E n~ "" d bcmg within a hundred-mile radius E. c ~"'v" ~ " .. ... ... ... • .. ... _a ___ ,r.. q roa1 ARTHUR C. GINGERICH ........... Wellman of Springfield. Jt!i F. j. POYNEE:R . .. ..........Cedar Rapid s I ,.. J. D. REYNOLDS.......................... C reston Walnut kernels a re rich in pro­ 225 C. A . DINGES..................... .Emmetsburg tem one pound having as much 'I MR S. DAVID S KRU IDENIER .. Des Moines protem as .five to six pounds of hlb' beef Ordinarily native black wal­ CffiCULATION THIS ISSUE 43.000 ani nuts will produce from 12 to 15 t i I I II a b<> \\1d po ,, omC"o at i.les Moine , •owa, ::.epiE"ml:>or pounds of k ernels per 100 pounds otti 22, 1!147 und r • · ' ~ ·~r~h ~4 . 19 12. of hulled nuts. Subscription ralo per yE"ar 3 years for S 1.00 Grafted name-variety nuts will ~~J Subs rlphon n ·ervation produce from 25 to 35 per cent 1 ~_,· Commission, «}14 -·-.. - ~ · .ue, DE"s MolnC's, Iowa Sond cash, check or money kernels. I planted 12 in 1943 that len1 order. at present a re cot 30 feet tall but 65t are bearing large crops of nuts tie LAKE NAMES SHOULD each year. They respond richly to manuring and cultivation. I firmly REFLECT CHARACTER l believe that ten years from now Says Bill Jarmgan able and my walnut orchard will produce \" tdely !mown editor of the Storm ~ ' • more money per year than a same Lake Pilot-Tribune, in his Old I s1ze orchard of apples or peaches. T imer's column in the Trib: And it 1s much less expensive to "Bro Knudson of the Emmets- Walnut trees mar bear abund antly In from seven to eight years, and the nuts are c; ear profit just f or plc;klng them up and hulling them. maintain Walnut trees planted in ten burg Democrat is worried. He . ~ . a pasture do not impede the grass. can't get folks to call their lake In fact, wherever you see black 'Five Island Lake,' although the produce and feed dealer in MIS­ WALNUTS-BLACK walnut trees, there is a fine blue ~~pup name was changed from 'Medium souri to buymg them That v.inter GOLD of '41 was the first time there had grass for the tree doesn't shade :n Lake' some five years ago heavily and the outer bulls of the "The depth of indignity was ever been an unlimited, guaranteed c r~ B y Merrill V. ipp<>, Walnut market for black walnuts We got nuts serve as soil feeders. see reached when an Iowa newspaper A warning to farmers who plant referred to tt as 'Five Fingered Dealer \.g-<' n t over four million pounds that sea­ tau son Shells were shipped to a plant walnut trees k eep stock away the Lake' (From an utlcle m the Missouri Con!'i~rvationist) m Chicago.