Produced by Chris Curnow, Tom Cosmas, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 7, No. 2, pp. 307-338, 5 figures in text August 24, 1953 Ecology of the Opossum on a Natural Area in Northeastern Kansas BY HENRY S. FITCH AND LEWIS L. SANDIDGE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1953 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 7, No. 2, pp. 307-338, 5 figures in text Published August 24, 1953 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1953 24-7812 Ecology of the Opossum on a Natural Area in Northeastern Kansas BY HENRY S. FITCH and LEWIS L. SANDIDGE On the 590-acre University of Kansas Natural History Reservation where our study was made, the opossum, _Didelphis marsupialis virginiana_ Kerr, is the largest predatory animal having a permanently resident population. The coyote, raccoon and red fox also occur on the area but each ranges widely, beyond the Reservation boundaries. With the passing nearly a century ago of the larger animals of the original fauna, the buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, wild turkey, gray wolf and others, lesser herbivores and carnivores including the opossum and animals of similar size fell heir to their key positions of predominance at the peak of the food pyramid. These smaller animals, however, exert less powerful effects in controlling the general aspect of the biotic community, and affect it in different directions. The over-all ecology is greatly altered. The flora and fauna both are undergoing successional changes which will continue for a long time and probably will culminate in a biotic community much different from the original climax.