Virginia Opossum

Description:

Opossums have a heavy set body that resembles a large house cat. They have a long head with a pointed snout. Their faces have long whiskers. All opossums have long, tapered tails with a scaly appearance. Females have a fur-lined pouch to carry their young (Baker, 1983). The color of the opossum varies by the region. Northern populations have thick underfur that is white in color and has black tips. The pale guard hairs give the opossum a gray appearance. In southern populations, the underfur is much sparser. Both northern and southern populations have white cheek hairs (McManus, 1974). Total length varies between 350 and 940 mm, tail length varies between 216 and 470mm. Males are larger than females with male weight ranging from 0.8 to 6.4 kg and female weight ranging from 0.3 to 3.7 kg (Wilson and Ruff, 1999).

Habitat:

Wildlife habitat yard along a greenbelt.

Notes:

Opossums, as a group, are among the oldest, most primitive mammals of the New World. Some scientists call them "living fossils" because they have survived relatively unchanged for at least 50 million years. They are intermediate in many respects between the most primitive of all mammals, the egg-laying monotremes of Australia, and the higher placental mammals. Their chief character is the marsupium or pouch that develops on the abdomen of females. Virginia opossums rarely live for longer than 18 months. The oldest known opossum in the wild was 3 years old when last captured. Although they are preyed upon by several predators, most are killed by cars.