10 Fascinating Facts About Opossums

Opossums and possums often cause some confusion due to their very similar names. Although they are both marsupials, they are actually different from one another. For example, opossums are marsupials native to North America. Possums are marsupials native to Australia. In the United States, opossums are often referred to as ‘possums,’ which further confuses matters. In this article, we explore 10 incredible opossum facts. Let’s go!

1. Opossums Have Pouches Like Kangaroos!

Opossums may look like rodents, with their long noses and rat-like tails, yet they are mammals. Like kangaroos and koalas, opossums are marsupials, meaning that they carry and nurse their young in a pouch on their bellies.

Virginia opossums, like kangaroos, are marsupials, which means they share the characteristic of having pouches for their young, but they belong to different orders within the marsupial infraclass.

2. Opossums Spread to the U.S. West Coast Because of the Great Depression

After the Isthmus of Panama joined North and South America three million years ago, two marsupials returned to North America: the Virginia opossum and the Southern opossum. Virginia opossums aren’t native to the U.S. West Coast, but during the Great Depression, people introduced opossums to the area as food.

3. They Have Great Resistance to Snake Venom

Opossums can tolerate snake venom, which is an extraordinary adaptation. This trait, mostly seen in gigantic opossums, allows them enough resistance to venom that they routinely consume snakes as food.

Opossums’ immunity to snake venom may have developed as a defensive mechanism that allows them to ingest these snakes despite their dangerous reputation as predators. Other researchers, however, think that they can eat different types of food because of a predatory adaptation.

4. Opossums Have a Resistance to Rabies

Although any mammal can contract rabies, it is extremely improbable that you will ever encounter an infected opossum. The rabies virus has a more difficult time surviving and multiplying inside an opossum’s body than it does inside most placental animals due to the animal’s lower body temperature. Still, use extreme caution if you must handle a wild opossum.

5. A Newborn Opossum is Only the Size of a Honeybee

Due to their short gestation, opossums have underdeveloped babies smaller than honeybees. Just like baby kangaroos, they’re called joeys. Opossums can have up to 20 young, with eight to nine on average. However, opossums aren’t technically maternal. While their young are in the pouch, mothers defend them passionately. However, once they’re out, they’re abandoned to survive on their own. Therefore, only one in ten joeys survive to adulthood.

6. Opossums Have 13 Nipples

Another incredible fact about opossums is the number and arrangement of their nipples. Commonly found on the bellies of opossums are 13 nipples, 12 of which are arranged in a circle around a single nipple in the middle. Like most marsupials, the newborn joeys are completely helpless outside of their mother’s pouch, where they can find nourishment, warmth, and refuge. Babies may be able to find the pouch with the help of small glands in the area. Until they are old enough to wean, the young will nurse from one of their mother’s 13 teats.

7. Playing Dead is Not Voluntary

Despite its effectiveness, opossums don’t play dead voluntarily. Like fainting, it’s a natural reaction to intense stress. This is where the term “playing possum” became a euphemism. This is a unique and effective defense system for possums. Many predators prefer living prey; thus, this strategy confuses or repels them. To repel foxes and owls, opossums also emit powerful mucus from their anuses.

8. They Have “Prehensile” Tails

A prehensile tail can grasp and coil around branches of trees. The opossum may suspend itself briefly by its tail and use it as an aid when climbing or relaxing in a tree. The strong, prehensile tails of opossums are just one way in which they have adapted to their semi-arboreal environments. Sometimes, possums will use their tails to carry nesting materials, such as twigs and leaves, back to their den.

9. Opossums Have a Complex Reproductive System

Like other marsupials, opossums have complex genitalia. For instance, male opossums have two-headed, forked penises. Females, on the other hand, benefit from two wombs and three genital canals. The opossum’s medial vagina is where the joeys exit after birth, while the lateral vaginas on either side of the body serve as sperm passages.

10. There are Semi-Aquatic Opossums

Opossums may survive in a wide variety of climates and settings. The water opossum or lapok is a marsupial that spends some of its time in the water. Even though lutrine opossums also have a semi-aquatic lifestyle, water opossums are by far the most aquatic marsupials on Earth.

The water opossum is unique among marsupials for another reason. Unlike most marsupials, water opossum males have pouches as well. These pouches also help the opossums prevent their genitalia from becoming entangled in underwater vegetation.