...The opposum's ability to munch down on the annoying blood suckers took even researchers by surprise. "I had no suspicion they'd be such efficient tick-killing animals," said Richard Ostfeld, of the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. "Don't hit opossums if they've playing dead in the road." Opossums are crazy, fastidious, grooming animals like cats, and when they find a tick, it's right down the hatch. Researchers found many digested ticks in the feces of cooperative opossums. Cheers to the guy who got that job! Ostfeld said that one opossum can kill and eat some 5,000 ticks...