When the didelphis virginiana meets with unexpected trauma, it may go into schizophrenia-associated catatonia.
Or simply stated, 'possums
don't play possum at all—they're just crazy, mixed-up animals that need to see a psychiatrist.
So says a Louisiana State University professor who uses the sharp-toothed ring-tails to study human behavior.
Dr. William S. Wiedorn of the
LSU medical school has experimented with a good many opossums, at least until they got too tame to be of value, and concluded that when a 'possum plays 'possum, it isn't just "pretending" to be dead; it's putting
on a first-rate psychiatric demonstration.
