{"id":1959,"date":"2026-05-06T00:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/cikavinky\/oposum-hraye-mertvym\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T01:15:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:15:57","slug":"oposum-hraye-mertvym","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/cikavinky\/oposum-hraye-mertvym\/","title":{"rendered":"How does an opossum fool predators by playing dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\udc00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u042f\u043a<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How does an opossum fool predators by playing dead?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Imagine being chased by a big fox. What would you do\u2014scream, run, hide? And the possum does the most amazing thing in the world: it falls down, closes its eyes, and\u2026 looks dead. It\u2019s called thanatosis, or \u00abplaying dead.\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is no ordinary game! The possum is not actually pretending consciously. From great fear, its body "turns off" - like when a computer's protection is triggered and it goes dark. The possum's muscles stiffen, its breathing slows down so much that it is almost invisible, its tongue sticks out, and a liquid with a terrible smell of rotten meat begins to emanate from its body. Brr!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The predator will run up, sniff - phew, dead, and rotten. And go look for a fresh dinner. And the possum can lie like that from a few minutes to 6 hours! When the danger passes, it wakes up, shakes itself off and runs on with its business as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opossums are the only marsupials in North America. Like kangaroos, they carry their babies in a pouch on their belly. A mother opossum can have up to 13 babies at a time, and they all cling to their mother, even riding on her back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you know what else is interesting? Opossums are almost never rabid and are not afraid of snake venom. Their blood contains a special substance that neutralizes the poison. Scientists are currently studying this substance to create better medicines for humans. It turns out that this funny beast with a bare tail and a perpetually frightened look can save millions of lives. Don't judge an animal by its appearance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

More interesting facts about animals at on the category page<\/a> \u2728<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When an opossum is scared, it falls down, sticks out its tongue, and starts to\u2026 stink. And it really works!<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1958,"parent":1782,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-title","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1959","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1959\/revisions\/2086"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kazkaland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}