Not only are Virginia opossums “North America’s only marsupial”, but they are one “of the most misunderstood animals in the Americas”. Far from the unfair and inaccurate reputation many humans have assigned them, opossums are sweet, shy, calm, docile, smart, clever, clean, “fascinating, adaptable creature[s] [who have] found a way to live alongside humanity”.

Here’s the least we all need to know about these amazing creatures:

The biggest fact nobody knows about possums is that, back in 2016 possums were dropped by their agent and publicist. That was a really dark time. Even for possums, who rely on the dark to avoid predators.
– The New Yorker

They are, and are not, possums! The Virginia opossum of the Americas, who we’re featuring, is not the same species as the “possum” found on other continents (like Australia), but the Virginia opossum can be “correctly” referred to as either “possum or opossum . . . as the ‘o’ tends to be silent in everyday speech” (leading to “possum” being “accepted as the shortened version of opossum in this part of the world”). The name “opossum” is “derived” from the Algonquin (indigenous) word “‘apasum’, which means white animal”.

If possums get the sense that their inherent perfection is wrecking your self-esteem, they’ll eat some garbage. That’s the main reason possums eat garbage. It’s for you.
– The New Yorker

They may be known as “jacks” (males) and “jills” (females), but they are extremely unique! 

• As marsupials, opossums are related to kangaroos, koalas, and wombats! 
• They have been “recorded throughout the Americas” but not “in any other region on Earth”.
• Opossums “are an overall grizzled white color with a pink nose, large black hairless ears with pink tips, and short dark legs.” They average four-to-six pounds in weight (but can reach 11 pounds) and 2.5 feet in length.
• Within the Americas, opossums are “generalists” and “can live in trees, den in burrows or even make use of abandoned buildings”. They will also “utilize just about any sheltered location for a den including hollows in trees and fallen logs, rock cavities, brush piles, and the burrows of other animals.”
• With prehensile tails and “thumb[s]”, opossums don’t “look like anything else you see in a field or forest”! They use their tails (which are nearly as long as their bodies) “like a hand or fifth appendage” to balance and stabilize “when walk[ing] along tree branches”, grasp, “wrap around things like tree limbs”, and “carry grass and leaves [and other material] for building nests”. They also have “the equivalent of opposable thumbs” in the form of “big toes on [their] hindfeet”, which “stand apart from their other toes in a way that looks very similar to a human hand and thumb” and “provide[] the opossum with better grasping and climbing skills than most other mammals”. (They are actually considered “world-class tree climbers”!)
• Their scientific name is Didelphis virginiana, with Didelphis meaning “double womb” (referring to their pouches as “secondary place[s] of development” for babies) and virginiana referring to the state of Virginia (“where the opossum was first observed by early English colonists”).
• They have “confusing genitalia”, with female opossums having “two vaginal tracts and two uteri”, and male opossums having “forked or bifurcated penis[es]” (something “fairly typical among marsupials”). 
• Opossums’ eyes may look “completely black from a distance” because of their huge pupils, but their eyes “do have whites and irises”. (As nocturnal animals, their “exaggerated pupil dilation is thought to help” them “see better after the sun goes down”.)
• They have 50 teeth, “more than any other land mammal on this continent….”
• They are resistant to dangers that often prove fatal to other animals (including humans), such as “most forms of snake venom” (as a result of their eating poisonous snakes), stings from insects and scorpions, and the “rabies” virus (because their “body temperature is too low for the virus to survive”).

Possums read the supplemental texts on the syllabus.
– The New Yorker

They are a tropical species that “has gradually moved north”! Though they are now “fairly common in New England and the Upper Midwest”, are “found all along the West Coast of the United States”, and range into Canada”, they – as “tropical mammal[s]” – originated in South America, are “not particularly suited for” tough winters, and often suffer from frostbite (especially on their hairless ears and tails) and hypothermia. To account for the cold, opossums will “den for a few days” (though they do not hibernate) and may “change their nocturnal habits and feed in daylight hours . . . to take advantage of warmer temperatures”.

Since the eighteen-hundreds, possums’ geographic range has steadily crept northward. Scientists don’t know why, exactly. They suspect it’s to see more of you.
– The New Yorker

They are super smart (even by human standards)! 

• Opossums have a “remarkable ability to find food and to remember where it is”, outperforming rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs! (Their “impressive memories” also extend to “toxic substances”, the smell of which they can recall for “up to a year”.) 
• They “can find their way through a maze more efficiently than rats and cats”!

Possums vote in local elections. They know what a comptroller is.
– The New Yorker

They do not “play” dead, though they may take on the appearance of a corpse as a defense mechanism!

• Opossums are “non-aggressive animals”, who “prefer to escape and avoid confrontations”. In fact, when confronted with a threat, adult opossums “will often hiss and bare [their] teeth. Or more likely, run” – “at speeds of around 4 miles per hour.”
• In response to certain threats, however, many young opossums and some adult possums will “transform” into “smelly corpse[s]” by “enter[ing] a catatonic state” – this state is described as “an involuntary response (like fainting) rather than a conscious act” and as “an involuntary reaction triggered by stress”. In this state, opossums “appear . . . dead”: they roll over, become limp, close their eyes (or stare with their eyes open), display “a death grimace”, secrete saliva from their mouths, appear to stop breathing, “discharge [their] bowels”, and emit a “foul” substance with a “corpse-like” smell. This catatonic state can last “up to six hours”, and, when they are “about to revive”, their ears will generally “start to wiggle”!
• Appearing dead and unhealthy helps them deter and “bluff . . . to outsmart” potential predators.

Lying on the side of the road one night, coming to after playing dead to avoid being eaten by a truck going seventy speeding away after striking them, possums caught sight of their reflection in a puddle. Their hair was matted. Their ears were scarred by frostbite. They’d been bitten in the cheek by a rattlesnake earlier and were still kinda walking that one off. Right then and there, possums decided to stop trying to be something they weren’t.
– The New Yorker

They are subjects of “folk tales”, “folklore”, and “myth”. To clear the air on their behalves, opossums:

• • do not “give birth out of their nostrils”. (After watching female opossums making a “sneezing sound” while licking their pouches, observers wrongly made “the considerable mental leap” that female opossums “sneeze[] out the[ir] babies”.)
  • are not impregnated via their noses. (Building on the fallacy that opossums birth through their nostrils, “[b]ackwoods wisdom” has wrongly “claimed” that male opossums use their “two-pronged penis[es]” to impregnate female opossums through their nostrils.”)
  • do not sleep hanging from their tails. (They only hang from their tails for short periods of time.)

Possums don’t bite humans. But they will if you ask them to. They won’t make you feel weird for asking, either. Afterward, you’ll feel comfortable sharing other stuff about yourself.
– The New Yorker

They are “meticulous about self-care” and are “fastidious groomer[s]”! Opossums are “incredibly clean animals”, who (like cats) “constantly self-groom” with their tongues and paws; “clean their entire bodies, from head to tail; use their claws to comb their fur….”; and are “practically odorless”. 

Possums kept trying to clean up as best they could, to meet beauty standards. But the only work possums were getting was for roles like ‘rat mixed with a cat but nobody’s happy about it’ and ‘what if bunnies but in a stress dream?’” – The New Yorker

They are “social creatures”! In contrast to the common perception that opossums are solitary animals, they have been observed “sharing dens” and “cohabiting the same space” with many others of various ages.

Possums always squeeze the sponge out after using it – even if possums think they might use it again soon.
– The New Yorker

They are caring and attentive mamas! 

• Baby possums are called “joeys”, and they receive all of their care from their mothers. (Jacks are polygynous – meaning they “have multiple female partners during the mating season….” – and “do not participate in the care of their young”.)
• Female opossums have, on average, two litters per year (“but this varies depending on the specific location”). 
• Each litter, which gestates for less than two weeks, includes “four to 25 young”, who “are so small at birth that 20 could fit into a teaspoon” and who are born “blind, deaf, and furless” (i.e., are “largely undeveloped at birth except for their mouth and front legs” and are, “essentially, as nature writer Ted Williams notes, walking embryos”). Nonetheless, they are still able to “crawl into their mother’s pouch” by following “a pathway licked by the[ir] mother from the genital opening to the pouch”.
• After spending a couple of months in their mother’s pouch, joeys leave the pouch but “remain close to their mother[s], often riding on her back for another few months” before becoming independent. 

Possums embraced [who they are]. Suddenly, possums had a ‘look’: dishevelled, tired, clearly losing it but trying to keep it together, a mouthful of teeth that were sort of terrifying whenever they attempted to smile. In other words, relatable.
– The New Yorker

They want to be around water and are good swimmers!

• Opossums “occupy a variety of habitats, ranging from deserts to wet meadows, but prefer living in woodlands and thickets, near a source of water”.
• They are “quite proficient swimmers”, who “can swim both underwater and along the surface, using their limbs and tail to move themselves through the water”.

Possums are punctual, but they don’t make being on time their whole personality.
– The New Yorker

They make several “distinctive calls”! Babies “make sneezing sounds or a soft ‘choo choo’ to call out to their mother[s]”, who “respond with clicking noises”; and male opossums make similar “clicking sounds” during mating season to attract females”.

Possums text you back immediately. It doesn’t feel desperate, either. Or like they’re playing some game and winning. Just feels nice, is all.
– The New Yorker

They are “unbelievably important to our ecosystems”, have “earned the title of ‘Nature’s Little Sanitation Engineer[s]’”, and act as “[s]anitation workers of the wild”! 

• Opossums make great “neighbors” for humans, benefitting “any area they inhabit” and helping to keep human neighborhoods clean and healthy.
• They are omnivores who “gobble up garbage, including bones and other refuse” other wildlife won’t touch. 
• They are “an incredible asset to a garden”, consuming “a multitude of pests, from snails and insects to rodents and venomous snakes” and “ticks” (they have been estimated to “eat more than 90 percent of the ticks they encounter” and “more than 5,000 ticks” each season, and they rarely contract Lyme disease).
• They “can adjust their diet based on season and location”!

Possums eat garden pests and hundreds of ticks a day. They’re mostly immune to rabies and snake venom, and are practically odorless except when sprawled out acting like they’re dead, which–who among us, right?
– The New Yorker

Their current population is “unknown”. Unfortunately, opossums tend to live only “an average of one to two years” due to the “many dangers” they face, including “predators and human conflicts”.

‘I eat ticks and trash,’ possums said, in a cutesy hiss that sounded like evil and rust. ‘I get harassed by predators, bitten in the face by rattlesnakes, unfairly chased out of yards. And you know something? I keep going. That’s who I am.’
– The New Yorker

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