While doing my student teaching in 1957 people in my student teaching class who were student teaching in the Sedro Wolley area claimed that they had been told that people living there had imported Opossum from North Carolina in the 40's.

Ed Swan,
Olympia


From: mcallisters4 at comcast.netTo: tweeters at u.washington.eduSubject: Re: [Tweeters] Starling habitat, native mammalsDate: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:57:27 -0800



Where is there a shread of evidence that opossums got here on their own? At the time of Dalquest's "Mammals of Washington," published in 1948, Opossums had only recently appeared in Washington and were known from Clear Lake in Skagit County and South Bend in Pacific County. At the time, it was recognized that Opossums had become well established in California and Oregon because of human transport and release. Opossums may have spread naturally into Washington from Oregon but they didn't get to Oregon on their own. To me, they're just as non-native as the Eastern Gray Squirrels and Nutria.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia, Washington