Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The Confrontation



Except for one lone apple high in the tree, all the apples have fallen from the tree (they’re not a long-hanging variety). When I checked the camera trap there were photographs of wildlife that had come to eat the last of the fallen fruit.

The most interesting were a series of photos of a bit of a confrontation between a gray fox and an opossum. Both species are omnivores in that they’ll eat both meat and vegetable matter. Although gray fox eat a lot of fruit, they tend to be more predators in that they actively hunt insects, small mammals and birds.

Opossums, on the other hand, eat a lot of carrion that they find – although, if they can catch them, they will kill and eat the same insects, mammals and birds as they gray fox. 


The two species tend to be about the same weight, but the fox is by far the faster and has a more aggressive personality. There were two apples and two animals when the photo series began –

In the final two photos, first the gray fox picked up an apple and apparently carried it off –


Which left the field to the opossum –


6 comments:

Stacy said...

That is really cool that you have a camera trap set up. These are great shots. The fox is a beauty.

The Furry Gnome said...

You catch some really neat animals on that camera trap!

RedPat said...

That is amazing!

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

Lovely shots at nnight of thee critters

Willard said...

Beautiful shots, Woody.

Tammie Lee said...

such wonderful photos
and a joy and intrigue to consider this interaction
thank you