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Opossums eat insects, rodents, birds, eggs, frogs, plants, fruits and grain. Some species may eat the skeletal remains of rodents and roadkill animals to fulfill their calcium requirements. [45] In captivity, opossums will eat practically anything including dog and cat food, livestock fodder and discarded human food scraps and waste.
Opossums in urban areas scavenge from bird feeders, vegetable gardens, compost piles, garbage cans, and food dishes intended for dogs and cats. [28] [34] Virginia opossum in northeastern Ohio. Opossums in captivity are known to engage in cannibalism, though this is probably uncommon in the wild. [41]
Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene. They are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house cat, with a long snout and prehensile tail. Family: Didelphidae (American opossums) Subfamily: Caluromyinae. Genus: Caluromys. Bare-tailed woolly opossum, C ...
Virginia opossum, native to North America; White-eared opossum, native to South America; Phalangeriformes, also called (o)possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi Common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), a common possum in Australian urban areas, invasive in New Zealand
The practice of coon hunting is sometimes associated with possum hunting, since the same dogs were often used, the animals are both climbers by nature, and are common in the same geographic areas. However, opossums are criticized for being too easy to hunt and too greasy to be edible if killed, and are seldom hunted today. [32]
The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., recently welcomed a one-eyed opossum named Basil, who was rescued after being attacked and is now an ambassador for his species at the zoo.
The common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis), also called the southern or black-eared opossum [2] or gambá, and sometimes called a possum, is a marsupial species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pacific Ocean to the central coast of Peru), including Trinidad and Tobago and the Windwards in the Caribbean, [2] where it is called manicou. [3]
Ringtail possums prefer forests of dense brush, particularly eucalyptus forests. [5] The common ringtail possum and its relatives occupy a range of niches similar to those of lemurs, monkeys, squirrels, and bushbabies in similar forests on other continents. [6] It is less prolific and less widespread than the common brushtail possum.