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 having
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
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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
Distributional range in North America