North America’s only native marsupial — more closely related to kangaroos than to raccoons or rats, despite the resemblance.

Opossums are one of the most misunderstood animals in the neighbourhood.

What they look like

Opossums are about the size of a house cat, with coarse greyish-white fur, a pointed pink snout, black eyes, and a long, mostly hairless prehensile tail used for balance and, in younger animals, occasionally for gripping branches.

Their mouths — lined with 50 teeth, more than any other North American mammal — look alarming but are almost never used aggressively against people.

Family life

Opossums breed in late winter and again in early summer, and their reproduction is unlike almost any other backyard animal. After a gestation of just 12 to 13 days, tiny, underdeveloped young crawl into the mother’s pouch, where they nurse and continue developing for about two months. A litter can include a dozen or more young, though pouch space limits how many survive.

Once they outgrow the pouch, young opossums ride on their mother’s back for several more weeks before striking out on their own — a common and much-photographed sight. Opossums are also notably short-lived for their size, with a lifespan in the wild of only about one to two years.

Daily habits

Opossums are solitary and almost entirely nocturnal, foraging alone at night and denning during the day in brush piles, hollow logs, or under sheds and decks.

They’re famous for two defence behaviours: “playing possum,” an involuntary catatonic state triggered by extreme fear that can last minutes to hours, and a threat display of hissing, drooling, and bared teeth that looks fierce but is almost entirely bluff. Actual aggression toward people or pets is rare.

Opossums are true omnivores and opportunistic scavengers, eating insects, small animals, fruit, carrion, and garbage. Their low body temperature makes them a poor host for the rabies virus, and documented rabies cases in opossums are extremely rare.

Territory and range

Opossums have small, loosely defended home ranges and don’t dig their own burrows, instead using whatever shelter is available and moving between den sites frequently. This makes them highly adaptable to developed, patchy habitat like a residential neighbourhood.

Living alongside opossums

• Leave them be. Opossums pose essentially no threat to people or pets and will typically retreat or play dead rather than engage.
• Secure trash and pet food. As with most backyard wildlife, removing easy food sources reduces the odds of an opossum settling in rather than passing through.
• Check before clearing brush piles or sheds. A resting opossum during the day is usually just denning, not sick.
• Don’t fear the hiss. The dramatic open-mouth display is a bluff, not a prelude to an attack.

Slow, quiet, and rarely any trouble, opossums are about as easy a wild neighbour as exists — worth a second look rather than the reflexive alarm they often receive.