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Animals · Woods and fields of North America

Virginia opossum

Didelphis virginiana

The animal that plays dead

A Virginia opossum walking along a fallen branch at dusk, its long bare tail hanging in a loose curl.
A Virginia opossum walking along a fallen branch at dusk, its long bare tail hanging in a loose curl.
  • Status: Safe
  • Woods, farms and towns from southern Canada to Costa Rica

Numbers

Weight
5 lb (2.3 kg)males 4.6 to 6.2 lb, females 4.2 to 4.6 lb
Length
16 in (41 cm)body only; the tail adds 10 to 21 in
Lifespan
2 yearsin the wild; about 4 years in captivity
Teeth
50 teeththe most of any land mammal in North America
Pregnancy
13 daysfrom 11 to 13 days
Babies in a litter
20 babieson average 8 or 9

Ten fun facts

  1. The opossum has fifty teeth, more than any other land mammal in North America, and ten of them are upper front teeth.

  2. Newborn opossums are the size of a honeybee and crawl into the pouch right after birth.

  3. A mother's pregnancy lasts only eleven to thirteen days, one of the shortest of any mammal.

  4. When it plays dead, the opossum is not pretending: its body goes stiff on its own, out of extreme fear.

  5. Opossums are very resistant to snake venom, thanks to special proteins carried in their blood that neutralize the toxins.

  6. The word opossum comes from the Algonquian wapathemwa, meaning white animal, and this species was the first to carry it.

  7. Its thumbs are on the back feet, have no claw, and can bend toward the other toes like ours.

  8. Its ancestors walked up from South America after a bridge of land joined the two continents.

  9. People say opossums eat thousands of ticks, but studies of wild opossums' stomachs have not found any.

  10. On Sapelo Island in Georgia, opossums with no predators evolved to live up to fifty percent longer.

The quiz answers

The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.

Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book

Where do baby opossums grow up?

Question 2 of 5

How many teeth does an adult opossum have?

Question 3 of 5

What does playing possum mean?

Question 4 of 5

Where did the opossum's ancestors come from?

Question 5 of 5

How long does a wild opossum usually live?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Run your tongue along your teeth and count them. You probably have between twenty and thirty-two; an opossum has fifty.

Experiment 2

Pick up a pencil using only your thumb and one finger, then try without the thumb. An opossum has grasping thumbs on its back feet.

Experiment 3

Find a honeybee in a picture and measure it with a ruler. A newborn opossum is about that small when it reaches its mother's pouch.

Data from Wikidata (Q147267) and Wikipedia (Virginia opossum).