Warning, Large Rats In Road.
Submitted by catahoula_fan on Thu, 2006/12/07 - 06:41.
in
Actually, it's an agouti crossing sign. We saw this along the road/trail to the Chocoyero Reserve in Pineapple Valley.
Anybody have an extra one of these lying around? Sure would look nice hanging on my bar wall!
One of Miskito Alan's favorite stories
He personaly knew this man F. Basil Clark
Clanton Possum Grower Thinks People Could Take a Lesson from this Humble Creature
By William E. Schulz
Associated Press Writer
CLANTON, Ala. — F. Basil Clark, operator of the world's largest opossum ranch, says people should be more like the critters he raises — stupid and ignorant.
"The possum is too ignorant to know he's a marsupial, that he can't survive in today's world, that he should have died off with the dinosaurs," Clark said. "He's so stupid he doesn't realize he can't survive, so he goes ahead and does it.
"People who believe that can do things nobody else has done, because they're too ignorant to know it can't be done and so stupid they don't realize they can't do it," Clark said.
"If you've got three things, you can do anything you want to do," he said. "A belief in God almighty, if you're ignorant of the fact it can't be done, and stupid enough to go ahead and do it.
"Education teaches you you can't do it. So I'm an advocator of stupidity and ignorance, without which a good education ain't worth a dime."
Clark, who is mayor of Clanton, heads the 400,00-member Possum Growers and Breeders Association.
Lyin' Farmer John Wayne
True Words of Wisdom
May I only be that ignorant...oh what?...according to my wife, there's NO problem! That man makes a lot of sense. And, I'll bet they're not EVER hungry, there!
Which?
The sign, or an agouti? I thought agoutis had a longer snout, but hey - watch out for animals no matter which species.
I was thinking of coati, not agouti
Here's an agouti http://www.mammalogy.org/mil_images/images/mid/1585.jpg
It's like a large rat, or a teacup capybara.
We have them in NC
And call 'em Possum crossing warning signs....helps keep road kills down to a minimum....
As we say thruout the south...
Eat mo' Possum....
Lyin' Farmer John Wayne
Pedantic Limey
here.
The Agouti is a rodent, a large rat indeed.
A possum is an Australian marsupial.
The opossum is one of the few non-Australian marsupials.
As LFJW rigthly says the opossum was (is) a food animal.
Sorry, I'll just pour myself a little Scotch (no FDC here and it is after 6 pm) and shut up.
possums
New Zealand had no mammals before the Maoris discovered the islands about 700 or 800 years ago. Of course men have introduced many since then. Now-a-days there are lots of deer and more sheep than people but the most troublesome is the Australian possum. The locals go to a lot of trouble to try and get rid of them. They kill as many as possible with poisoned carrots. We were told to never eat the blue carrots.
food animals
As a combination FHA/4-H/Junior Achievement project, I raised quail for the eggs as well as the meat. Part of the project included designing and building a quail-coop. We lived in what was then the country and had lots of possums and skunks as our neighbors.
Well, the possums kept finding ways of getting into the quail-coop -- usually by digging through the boards, not underground, but above ground and eating both eggs and pieces of quail. Not a pretty sight to see pieces missing from your profit centers at 0-dark-30! (BTW, yes, this was for-profit -- never really been even remotely interested in the self-immolation model espoused by soooo many NL'ers).
One dark morning (foggy dark in the North County of San Diego), I opened the door to see zero eggs and knew my "friends" the possums had yet again arrived overnight. As I was searching for the "entry-point", I caught a blur of something fuzzy, gray, and pink tailed flying through the air directly at my face. POSSUM! All it did was bounce off my right shoulder and fly out the door but I was pretty much done with the quail "business" from that day forward.
Lastly, exactly 4 weeks to the day after my "possum attack", a hawk broke through a screened window that had been damaged. He fled as soon as I opened the door but a talon scraped my nose as we both tried to avoid a collision -- still have the scar from that incident...
No, please don't shut up
I've always wondered what the difference was between a "possum" and an "O-possum".
And it's not pedantic at all, you bloody limey :-)
Difference
is...a "possum" is road kill. An "O possum" is the live version just before he gets hit...as in "Ah O". But, by all means, maybe Steve has a more detailed explanation. If so, I hope he'll elaborate.
Derivation
Opossum, from Old Middle Gaelic: O'Possum, "son of road kill".
Bloody limey strikes back
Look, you're driving along and 'Ooops' you hit a possum.
Now that is an Oopspossum.
However since none of you guys has been in the Australian outback (ask me for details of the Drop Bear and Hoop Snake if you want to know more)
There's not much more I can tell you about these sad little marsupials
Never
All I know is from watching Steve Irwin, and the Paul Hogan movies.
Isn't the hoop snake the one that allegedly clinches its tail in its mouth, hula hoop like, and rolls away from predators, wink wink?
Never heard of a drop bear. I'll take a wild guess that it's a koala that poops on your head.
That's right.
The drop bear is one of a range of animals US soldiers get briefed about when they go to Oz for training. It hangs around in trees, falls on your head and kills you by thrusting poisoned claws in your ears. I think it originated from Koalas which get drunk on some berry ?? and do fall out of the tree.
The most dangerous animal I met there was a goddam Wombat - took the front axle + sump out of a Land Rover.
Bear?
Koalas aren't bears........ They're marsupials. Must be a different beast. Pura Nica, Bobby
A lot of people have'nt been
A lot of people have'nt been eating since they put those signs up in NC.