Hello,

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.

My porch is made of bricks laid on the ground, so I don't think anything (may be worms) can live under it. On the other hands, I live next to a woodland, so may be the opossum come from there.

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

Some are not too bright. It could have had the smell of food on it's mind and not noticed the skunk until the skunk moved. I have seen the walk right then flinch when they see you out of the corner of their eye.

When we lived on the farm and had alot of barn cats, opposums would sometimes come and eat the cat food. You could walk right past one and it would not notice you if it was eating. That was usually right before dark.

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.

Wow, didn't know opossum carry diseases dangerous to horses. Fortunately, we don't have horses and don't have a big enough yard for them any way.

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.

They carry diseases that effect humans as well as other animals where a skunk does not carry those a skunk and cat will walk side by side skunks eat moles and grubs cat will not go where there is opossum rather see a skunk on my farm easy to keep away from my chickens and bees opossum little harder and to many diseases for me want them to stay in woods