Virginia Opossum

The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial in North America. A marsupial, such as a kangaroo or a koala, is a mammal having a pouch. One of Earth's oldest living mammals, the opossum, has been around for at least 70 million years. Didelphidae is the scientific name for opossums, which includes more than 103 species in 19 genera. The Didelphimorphia order is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and this mammal belongs to it. Virginia Opossum's scientific name is Didelphidae Virginiana. The name comes from the fact that these marsupials have two wombs. Between 1607 and 1611, the word "opossum" was first attested. It is thought to have been derived from a Proto-Algonquian term, "apousoum," which meaning "white dog or dog-like animal" in the Powhatan language. The world's first recorded use can be traced back to John Smith and the Virginia colony of Jamestown. Now with an understanding of Virginia Opossum scientific name origin and its meaning let us go ahead and explore the different Virginia opossum facts.

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All About Virginia Opossum

Habitat, Nature and Behavioural Characteristics

• Virginia Opossum Habitat - Virginia opossum range is very large and is expanding over Central and North America. Virginia opossums can currently be found from Costa Rica to Ontario, Canada. Virginia opossums are restricted by temperature and snow depth and can only be found east of the Rocky Mountains and along the west coast. The Virginia opossum can be found in a wide range of environments, including deciduous forests, open woods, and farms. It prefers moist places like marshes, swamps, and streams. Because of their tropical origins, Virginia opossums are ill-equipped for extreme cold, with insufficient thermoregulatory abilities and insufficiently insulated fur. Instead, Virginia opossums' survival is likely aided by their ability to adapt to high temperatures and the protection provided by human structures.

• Physical Appearance - The most interesting among many Virginia Opossum facts is that it is almost the same size as a large domestic cat. It has a long pointed nose and a distinctive triangular head. Except for its ears, feet, and tail, it has greyish fur all over. It has a prehensile tail. A prehensile tail is designed to grip and wrap around objects like tree limbs. For a brief time, the opossum can hang from its tail. Some people believe that opossums sleep while hanging from their tails, however, this is not the case. They can't hold them for that long because their tails aren't strong enough. The opossum's hallux is opposable. Hallux is clawless big toes that function similarly to thumbs. When climbing, the hallux assists the baby Virginia opossum and the adults in grasping branches. The opossum does not hibernate in the winter, but it does seek shelter during extremely cold weather to avoid frostbite on its hairless ears, tail, and toes.

• Evolutionary Behaviour - The prehensile nature of these rat-like tails is due to their ability to hold onto things. Baby Virginia Opossums may utilise their tails to assist them to stay balanced, climb trees, and hold onto nesting materials while climbing thanks to this characteristic. While being carried around, young animals utilise their prehensile tails to cling to their mothers' backs. Opossums do not, contrary to popular perception, hang upside down from trees by their tails like bats. The opposable thumbs on these mammals' hind legs help them cling onto branches and other objects even more successfully.

• Virginia Opossum Diet - The Virginia opossum is nocturnal and hunts for food with its excellent sense of smell. It is omnivorous, meaning it eats a wide variety of plants and animals, including fruits, insects, and other tiny animals. It eats rubbish and carrion on occasion. Carrion is defined as dead animals. Opossums are frequently killed by cars when searching for food on highways since so much carrion is roadkill. Birds, mice, worms, snakes, insects, and even chickens are all prey for these mammals. Many opossum species are immune to the poison of rattlesnakes and pit vipers, allowing them to prey on these animals. One of the many characteristics that have made the opossum such a successful species is its nutritional versatility.

• Natural Behaviour - Opossums are solitary and nomadic animals with a peculiar, slow-moving, limping style of getting around. These mammals' eyes are well-adapted to darkness because they are primarily active at night when they scavenge for food and engage in most other behaviours. Rather than building their own nests, opossums prefer to hide in suitable cavities during the day. For example, inside the tree holes and brush piles, as well as beneath man-made structures. During the hotter months, these marsupials are more active. They usually follow food wherever it leads. These marsupials tend to stay put in more permanent nesting places during the winter. They are not real hibernators, though, because they remain relatively active during the colder months. They are adept tree climbers and spend a lot of time in canopies, despite not being arboreal marsupials that dwell in trees.

• Prey Behaviour - When threatened by predators, one of these creatures' most well-known behavioural characteristics is their proclivity to play dead. If the mammal's initial reaction to a threat of hissing, baring its teeth, and growling fails to scare it away, the tactic is known as "playing possum." If a predator attacks, the animal will become entirely limp and attain a state of near-catatonia. The marsupial may close its eyes or stare blankly into space when it is flipped over on its side. The creature might appear to be dead when its tongue is stretched. People are generally unaware that while feigning dead, opossums defecate and release a foul-smelling, green fluid from their anal glands. The animal can stay in this state for up to six hours, during which time its respiration and heart rate drop drastically.

• Senses - Opossums have no odour on their bodies. It's because they continually lick themselves. The licking helps to regulate their body temperature because they lack sweat glands and the draining saliva helps to cool them down. Touch is very important to opossums. They have 1,188 genes dedicated to smell, which makes their sense of smell outstanding. However, their vision is poor, and their senses of hearing and taste are also impaired. Only a few unique vocalisations are made by Virginia Opossums. When they are agitated, they hiss, snarl, and shriek, and they may do all of these things. Males make clicking sounds during mating behaviour, mothers surrounding their young, and newborns all make clicking sounds. The mothers purr to their children.

• Breeding - Virginia opossums reach sexual maturity in their first year of life, about 6 months for females and 8 months for males, but they don't start breeding until they're around 10 months old. This species has a long breeding season, but the precise months vary depending on where the individual is located. A sexually dimorphic scent gland on the chest of male Virginia opossums releases a musky odour and stains their fur; this is most typically visible towards the start of the breeding season. Females have a 29.5-day oestrous cycle, and once they enter oestrous, breeding occurs practically immediately. The only social behaviour performed by Virginia opossums is mating, and after mating, females return to their aggressive, solitary nature.

• Reproduction and Life Span - 4 to 25 altricial “honey bee-sized” offspring are born after an extraordinarily short gestation period of 12 to 13 days, despite females having just 13 mammae, some of which may be nonfunctional. The offspring is about 14 mm long and weighs between 0.13 and 0.20 grammes. Despite the fact that their newborn progeny are underdeveloped in many ways, they do have robust front legs that allow them to climb to the mother's pouch. Many young do not survive the journey to the pouch; those that do stay attached to the mammae for 50 to 70 days; females have an average of 8 pouch-young per litter. The baby Virginia opossum stays with their mother once their time in the pouch is up, either staying in the den while she forages or riding on her back. The young begin eating solid food around the age of 85 days and are entirely weaned between the ages of 93 and 105 days. Young are normally independent after this stage, though some will remain in the weaning den with their mother until they are around 120 days old. Approximately 60% of the children will perish once they are fully self-sufficient.

• Intelligence and Training - Because of their slow movement and limited brain size, opossums have a reputation for being dimwitted. In a series of studies, however, researchers discovered that humans outperform dogs, cats, and other animals in remembering the location of food placed in a maze–only humans outperformed dogs, cats, and other animals. Owners of young rescued, non-releasable wild opossums claim they can be trained to use the litter box and leash, enjoy being held and snuggled, and will greet them at the door when they return home. They also allege that when their name is called, opossums appear.

• Virginia Opossum Predators and Threats - The greatest threat to opossums are humans. These creatures were once hunted and consumed on a regular basis in the United States; President Jimmy Carter was known to hunt them. Opossum hunting is still popular in many parts of Central and South America, despite local governments banning the practice. On the other hand, it is a Virginia Opossum fact that they are classed as “least concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which means they are not endangered.

Virginia Opossum Fun Facts

1. The first two months of an opossum's life must be spent in their mother's pouch.

2. The Algonquin Indian term opossum means "white animal." The word "marsupial" is derived from the Latin word "marsupium," which refers to the pouch in which the young are carried.

3. The opossum has remained practically unaltered since prehistoric times. It's been referred to as a living fossil by some experts.

4. Opossums are nocturnal and crepuscular, spending the majority of their time foraging for food. They have an acute sense of smell and may use touch to locate food.

5. Virginia Opossum teeth are the highest number of teeth of any terrestrial mammal, with fifty razor-sharp teeth.

6. Virginia Opossum animals everywhere are nocturnal. They sleep in a den in a hollow tree or an abandoned rodent burrow during the day.

7. When opossums are attacked, they will “play possum,” which means they will remain motionless, not blink, and have their tongue hanging out. The attacker will typically lose interest in the opossum as a result of this action.

8. The Virginia opossum animal is the only opossum species found in the United States and Canada. The common opossum is another name for it even though the Virginia opossum's scientific name is Didelphis virginiana.

9. Despite their similar names, North, Central, and South American opossums are not related to arboreal marsupials of the suborder Phalangeriformes, usually called possums but unique to the Eastern Hemisphere.

10. When it opens its mouth, all of those teeth are visible, making it appear quite dangerous. Don't be fooled by that. Opossums are mild-mannered unless provoked, and even then, they are unpredictable. All they want is for you to stay away.