Opossum

The opossum is a small mammal that lives in North, Central, and South America. It is the only marsupial native to the United States and Canada. A marsupial is a type of mammal whose babies finish growing inside a pouch on the mother's belly. Kangaroos and koalas are marsupials too.

The Virginia opossum is the kind most people in the United States see. An adult is about the size of a house cat. It has gray fur, a pointed pink nose, black eyes, and a long naked tail. Its feet look almost like tiny hands. Each back foot even has a thumb that helps the opossum grip tree branches.

Opossums live in forests, fields, swamps, and neighborhoods. They are not picky about food. An opossum will eat fruit, nuts, insects, eggs, mice, snakes, and garbage. This makes them useful neighbors. A single opossum can eat thousands of ticks in one summer, which helps reduce the spread of Lyme disease.

Baby opossums are born very tiny. A newborn is about the size of a honeybee. Up to twenty babies are born at once, and they crawl up the mother's fur into her pouch. Inside the pouch, they drink milk and keep growing for about two months. After that, they ride around on their mother's back until they are big enough to live on their own.

Opossums are famous for "playing possum." When an opossum is scared badly enough, it falls over, goes stiff, lets its tongue hang out, and gives off a bad smell like a dead animal. This can last for hours. The opossum is not faking it on purpose. Its body freezes up automatically, the way some people faint from fear. Predators usually leave the "dead" animal alone, and the opossum wakes up and wanders off later.

Opossums have other strange abilities. Their blood contains a protein that blocks snake venom. They rarely get rabies, because their body temperature is too low for the virus to thrive. They also have fifty teeth, more than any other land mammal in North America.

Opossums do not live long. Most survive only one or two years in the wild. Cars, owls, and cold winters are their biggest dangers. Their naked ears and tails can get frostbite on freezing nights.

Despite their scruffy looks, opossums are gentle animals. They almost never bite. When an opossum waddles across a yard at night, it is probably eating ticks, slugs, and fallen fruit that nobody else wanted.