Opossum (Didelphus virginianus)
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
The opossum is one of our strangest animals. It has a pouch for its babies like a kangaroo, making it the only marsupial in the United States. It also has a prehensile tail like a monkey. This means it can use its tail like another hand to pick up things or hold onto branches. It also has an opposable thumb on its back feet. People have opposable thumbs; we can fold our thumb across the palm of our hand. This really helps you to pick things up. (The footprint from an opossum’s back foot looks just like a tiny person’s hand print!) The opossum also has a huge number of teeth, fifty in all! As you can see, it is a strange animal. The opossum is about the size of a cat (4 - 14 pounds) and has rough grayish-black fur. It has a white face, a pink nose, and a long hairless, pink tail. This animal is well-known for "playing possum" or pretending to be dead when it is in danger. They don’t always play possum, though. Instead, they might hiss and drool and try to scare a dangerous animal away. They can also try to run up a tree or jump into a hole. But sometimes, they just pass out. They might also throw up or go to the bathroom, anything they can do to make themselves smelly and disgusting so the predator will not want to eat them. (Who wants to eat meat that smells like vomit?) After a while, the opossum just wakes up and walks off.
HABITAT, SENSES, FEEDING
The opossum lives all over the south central and eastern US and in California. Once it gets into the northern states, it can survive, but it gets frostbite on its ears and tail, because there is no hair to protect those parts of its body. It lives in the same habitats as raccoons, and eats many of the same foods. Opossums are usually nocturnal (night creatures.) They are solitary, living alone most of the time. These animals are fairly slow-moving, but they can run, swim, and climb if they have to. Their sense of hearing helps them to find and avoid dangerous predators, and their sense of smell helps them to find food. They are opportunistic feeders, which means they will eat almost anything they can find. They are also omnivorous, eating plants and animals. Their menu includes fruits and nuts, green plants, insects, earthworms, birds, reptiles, and even dead animals like road kills. In the spring, they love to eat new plants. In the summer, there are lots of grasshoppers and toads to eat. In the fall, it’s easy for them to find nuts and berries. They eat different things at different times of year. Opossums may live for up to seven years, but usually only live for 1 1/2 years in the wild.
DENS AND REPRODUCTION: Opossums do not dig their own dens, but instead use things like old buildings, drainage ditches, hollow logs, or squirrels’ nests. Sometimes they even share dens with other animals like skunks or rabbits. Opossums may have three sets of babies each year, but usually only have two. Thirteen days after the female becomes pregnant, six to sixteen tiny babies are born. They crawl to her fur-lined pouch and find one of 13 nipples to suck on. They get milk from their mother and stay in the pouch for 2 months. After that, they have fur and crawl out of the pouch. (They are only two inches long not counting their tails.) Their mother will carry them on her back, and after 2 more weeks, they are ready to eat grown-up foods. In one more month they are completely grown up and on their own. Their whole childhood lasts only 3 1/2 months. Females are reproductively mature by seven months old, so they may even have their own babies that year.
Opossum Foot Print