Care of the Virginia Opossum

Opossums have been known to inhabit the earth for the past 70-80 million years, which makes them one of the world’s oldest surviving mammals.

 

Opossums have a robust immune system which is resistant to snake venom, and their normal body temperature is too low to support the rabies virus.

 

They are the only marsupial in North America.

 

Opossums are almost always non-aggressive unless threatened, at which time they will bare their teeth, hiss, growl, drool, and/or play dead.

 

Opossums may exhibit ‘playing possum’ to protect themselves in frightful or dangerous situations and may go into a stage of involuntary coma when escape becomes impossible. This stage of coma may continue from 40 minutes to 4 hours.

 

The female opossum has a divided uterus and the male has a forked penis.

 

Male opossums make smacking noise to attract a female, and the female sometimes repeats the same sound.

 

Baby opossums make a sneezing, hissing, or sort of a "choo choo" sound, when it's in distress or calling out to mom or its siblings.

 

Opossums give birth to two litters per year, each resulting in an average number of eight babies. When the babies are born, they are smaller than honey bees and crawl from the vagina up and into the mother's pouch where they will permanently latch onto a nipple while developing. It takes at least 67 days for them to crawl out of the pouch and about 75 days to be able to eat solid food. Sometimes, when they are older, they will even ride on their mother’s back, as she goes hunting for food.

 

Opossums lack good vision and do not have strong hearing abilities, but their sense of smell is very keen.

Opossums are opportunistic in nature, and survive on whatever they find as food. The range of edibles includes insects, berries, over-ripe fruits, grasses, leaves, carrion, snakes, frogs, birds, eggs, snails, slugs, moles, and garbage.

 

Occasionally a very young opossum might hang from a tree using its tail, but older possums are much too heavy.  Adult opossums use their tails in climbing and in gathering items to make a nest, at which time it acts as a fifth limb.

 

Opossums are generally loners, coming together only to breed, in the presence of food, or for a mother to give birth to and raise her young. Young possums are sometimes found in groups.

 

Opossums have 50 teeth--more than any other mammal!

 

Opossums are basically nocturnal and usually hide/sleep during the day in the holes in the ground or hollowed-out logs. In some cases, they may also find shelter in the dens of other animals.

 

Opossums are excellent tree climbers.

 

The opossums average lifespan of opossums in the wild is 1 to 1 ½ years (or 2 winters). They often die at an early age at the hands of humans (such as being hit by a car), or they become prey to other animals.