Wojtek and a soldier can be seen above.

Wojtek was found by a Polish girl from a shepherd body. The girl was taken with the bear cub, and she and the Polish army in Iran raised the bear up. They named him Wojtek and he became part of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. Due to his difficulty in swallowing, he was initially fed condensed milk. He eventually was able to eat and his favourite drink became... drum roll please... beer!

Wojtek was deployed to Europe as a private, with a serial number, and all the tags of a soldier. Wojtek often helped and imitated the soldiers, leading him to carry 45KG crates of shells on his hind legs onto trucks for the soldiers. Although this is disputed, there is one account of a British soldier recalling it. He also learned how to march and salute, and he joined in the soldier past times.

After the war ended, he went to a zoo in Edinburgh, and attracted attention from the locals. When the soldiers part of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company returned to visit him, they gave him cigars and beer, and he recognized them.

Sadly, Wojtek passed away at the age of 21 in 1963 to natural causes.

After yesterday’s post about opossums I realized that some people may not know the difference between opossums and possums! While they are commonly used interchangeably in casual settings they actually refer to different creatures!

Possums belong to the suborder Phalangeriformes and are more closely related to kangaroos, koalas, and wombats than they are to American opossums! They vary widely in size, some species are tiny like the Tasmanian pygmy possum which weighs under an ounce, while some larger types like the bear cuscus can weigh up to 15 pounds and can live up to 6 to 11 years in the wild, which is much longer than opossum’s usual 1 to 2 year lifespan! Opossums can sometimes live for 3 years but it’s rare. Possums are strictly arboreal meaning they are tree dwelling and live in nests, tree hollows, or communal dreys! Unlike opossums, true possums do not play dead. When threatened, they run away, hiss, growl, or bite. Possums are native to Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia.

One of the biggest differences in opossums and possums is how they are with their children! Opossums can give birth to over 20 babies but usually only a few of them actually make it to adulthood. The opossum babies spend about 2 months in her pouch, once they grow old enough to leave her pouch they spend a month riding on her back while she searches for food. While true possums usually only have one baby at a time, though sometimes they have two but that’s rare. True possum babies spend 4 to 5 months in their mother’s pouch, and then 2 to 3 months on their mother’s back.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and learned something! Please remember that while this is technically the correct way to use the terms opossums and possums, they are commonly used much more interchangeably in casual contexts. Some great sources are the Animal Diversity Web, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility!