Tonight, I looked out and noticed something moving on the porch. It turned out to be a skunk sniffing near the BBQ (no doubt smelling the food I cooked earlier). Suddenly a opossum appeared out of nowhere and went straight for the skunk. The skunk rear its tail and the opossum backed off and disappeared into the night.

I didn't think opossums were suppose to be aggressive?

Paul

This question really left me wondering, so I did some reading.
Apparently the two most likely reasons that a possum might go on the offensive toward another animal are: to defend its young; and to defend its territory.

Perhaps your porch is an area that the possum considers their territory at night, and the skunk stepped into it.
And you never know, maybe there is a little den of possum babies under your porch as well.

From what I read, other than these reasons, possums are not confrontational, and they also are very resistant to rabies (their body temperature doesn't allow rabies to survive for long).

I guess I would look to see whether there might be a little family under/around your porch. Also, you might want to put out some cups of ammonia, or moth balls, around your porch to discourage the skunk.

Good luck with this. If you continue to have a problem, don't hesitate to call your wildlife management office for advice.

Despite their ugly appearance. I have a fondness for opossums because they are the last marsupials in North America. They apparently have a very tough immune system. I generally avoid them if I see them in the daytime though. I figure they must be sick.

Paul

If you have horses, you should be aware that opposums carry a neuological disease that is not treatable and is fatal to horses, called EPM. They pick it up by eating grass around opposum feces.

I read various articles indicating that opossum senses are a bit slow. You may be able to approach one before the opossum notice you are there.

When I lived in the city, the opossums were quite common. I usually seem them near garbage cans. People can have very weird ideas about them. A lady came up to me once to warn me to tell the Landlord to cut the grass, because Opossum live in tall grass and I can be killed by one (!?)

Ironically, the few times I have seen an opossum in the suburb is when they are fighting. Every time I see one in the suburb, it's fighting another opossum. This is the first time I have seen one try to fight a skunk.

I consider myself very fortunate to have opossums visit me. One winter we had a big one make his home on our back porch! I loved Pete.
I have never seen a skunk.
It is true that they RARELY get rabies, if you saw one during the day someone probably disturbed his sleeping spot. Also, I believe they have poor eyesight but a very good sense of smell.
They are not agressive, only in self defense. My cats do not bother them & they do not bother the cats, sometimes they run from the cats.