Micke Grove Zoo

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Virginia Opossum
Didelphis virginiana

  • Habitat: Tropical and temperate wooded areas
  • Range: North America
  • Natural Diet: Invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, eggs, and fruits
  • Status in the Wild: Lease Concern (Common)

 

Fun Facts

  • When hunted by a predator, Virginia opossum roll over and play dead. This anti-predator strategy is known to be quite successful

  • They are mostly grey in color, which helps them camouflage when they are on tree in their natural habitat

  • their tails are approximately a foot long and prehensile helping them to hold onto branches when they are off the ground

  • They are marsupials with adult, sexually mature females have pouches in which her young develop

  • Adult females carry her young on her back until they are 3 months old to protect them from predators

 

Conservation Threats

  • Even though Virginia opossums are illegal hunted and trapped for their fur, experts have assessed that this has not had a detrimental influence on their free-ranging population numbers

 

 

 

Virginia Opossum Opossums have prehensile tails that used for their arboreal lifestyle. Our female's climbing abilities our limited since she lost her tail in a fight in the wild when she was young

 

 

Map Distributional range in North America