Opossums

Identifying Characteristics

• 2 to 3 feet long, including the tail
• Weigh up to 15 lb., although most fall within 4 to 7 lb.
• Males are usually larger than females
• About the size of a house cat
• Coarse coat
• Varies from grayish white to nearly black
• Pointy white face
• Beady black eyes
• Round, black ears
• Stout body
• Nearly hairless, scaly, prehensile tail is about half of the animal’s total length
• Five sharp-clawed toes on each front foot
• Innermost toe on each hind food is clawless and opposable and can be used for grasping branches

North America, South America, and Central America.

Opossums have a home range of 50 to 300 acres and often live in forested areas with brushy cover and available water.

Few Opossums live beyond 3 years.

• Have adapted to a variety of habitats, ranging from arid to moist and wooded to open fields
• Prefer environments near streams or wetlands
• Take shelter in abandoned burrows of other animals
• Tree cavities and brush piles and beneath other dense cover
• Largely arboreal, they are absent from treeless dry areas
• Overlapping home ranges that allow high populations to develop when food is plentiful

• Omnivore
• Opportunist, will eat almost anything
• Insects, small mammals, eggs, nestlings, fruit, and sometimes cultivated crops, green plants, snails, slugs, birds and their eggs, and small mammals such as meadow voles, mice, and rats

No, they do not hibernate.

Create sleeping dens in cavities of trees or log, sheds, barns, piles of building materials, and crevices in rocks.

Breeds from midwinter to late autumn.

A litter is produced annually in cooler regions, but 2 litters are the rule in warmer regions.

Average 7 to 8 per litter, but may have as many as 25 young.

• Often found in a hollow tree or under stumps and roots
• In urban areas, may den under steps, porches, decks, garden tools, sheds, and if accessible, in attics, garages, and beneath houses

• Den in houses, sheds, barns by creating or enlarging entry holes
• Tearing insulation and other soft items during denning activities
• Chewing on wires and water lines
• Defecating in unacceptable locations
• Vegetable gardens
• Compost piles
• Garbage cans
• Food dishes intended for dogs or cats
• Having lost much of their natural fear of people, they will even sometimes enter a home through a pet door in search of food
• Although they show a remarkable resistance to many viruses, they are often believed to cary diseases and parasites transferable to humans and pets
• Carry ticks, fleas, roundworms, and other common parasites