The Deer and the Possum

By Patrick White

The photo below is a trail cam photo of a possum eating ticks off a deer. Possums have voracious appetites and can eat up to 2,000 ticks a day. Deer are known to harbor many ticks, so much so that fawns have been known to die when infected with ticks in large numbers.

In this photo, the mighty buck bows to the possum, and the possum climbs up a rock to meet the buck and gently removes every tick it sees on the deer. Now possum and deer couldn't be more different, and indeed their needs here, while different, are very much aligned. It takes a great deal of trust for the possum and the deer to work together to meet each other's needs.

There's perhaps a lesson here for us all.