--- title: "Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Fifty-toothed marsupial that fakes its own death through an involuntary catatonic collapse and is virtually immune to pit viper venom." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/virginia-opossum-1.webp" published: "2026-09-06" updated: "2026-09-24" --- # Virginia Opossum (*Didelphis virginiana*) > **Status**: Checked against 8 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Fifty-toothed marsupial that fakes its own death through an involuntary catatonic collapse and is virtually immune to pit viper venom. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: 90s Riot Grrrl & Grunge // Babes in Toyland, "Sweet '69" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/55oE1XL7HceNY7VR7Nz4yu) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYk3j5z1L6k) > **Vibe Match**: Ragged, snarling, unvarnished grunge defiance for a marsupial that is virtually immune to pit viper venom and whose defence is an involuntary catatonic collapse that can last up to four hours. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Didelphis virginiana* - **Danger Level**: Low - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2016-1.rlts.t40502a22176259.en)) - **Superpower**: Involuntary catatonic collapse paired with near-total resistance to pit viper venom. - **Habitat**: Woodlands and thickets near water, plus open country and urban areas, from Costa Rica to southern Canada - **Diet**: Small mammals, birds, insects, worms, fruits, seeds, carrion, and occasionally reptiles or amphibians (opportunistic omnivore) - **Tags**: mammal, woodland, omnivore, nocturnal, immune-tank, marsupial ## Natural History & Behavior The only marsupial found north of Mexico, the Virginia opossum (*Didelphis virginiana*) carries fifty teeth. Males run about 16 inches long plus an 11.6-inch tail and weigh 4.6 to 6.2 pounds; females are a little lighter, at 4.2 to 4.6 pounds. In the wild they may live to be 1.5 to 2 years old; in human care they typically reach 3 or 4. ## A Collapse It Can't Control When threatened or harmed by a dog, fox, bobcat or other predator, an opossum may "play possum," appearing to be sick or dead. It isn't a conscious performance: the catatonic collapse is an automatic response to danger. Mostly young opossums do it; a threatened adult will bare its teeth, hiss, screech or flee, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo. > **A corpse with a pulse** Its lips curl back over bared teeth, saliva foams at its mouth, and its anal glands leak a foul-smelling fluid, a catatonic state that can last up to four hours. ## Wired to Shrug Off a Snakebite Opossums that prey on pit vipers, including several species in the Virginia opossum's genus *Didelphis*, appear to take no precautions while subduing the snakes and are often bitten, according to a 2011 study in *PLoS ONE*. That study sequenced part of the blood-clotting gene von Willebrand factor (vWF) in Virginia opossums and their relatives, and found strong evidence of positive selection on it in venom-resistant opossums. Some changes are hypothesized to weaken its bond with botrocetin, a pit viper venom protein that contributes to systemic bleeding. A 2016 paper reports that an eleven-amino-acid opossum peptide completely neutralized a lethal dose of western diamondback rattlesnake venom in mice when the two were mixed before injection, and a bacteria-made version partially neutralized rattlesnake venom. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance calls opossums "virtually immune to the venom of rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and other pit vipers." ## Range, Diet, and the Tick Question Virginia opossums range from Costa Rica north through the United States east of the Rocky Mountains into Ontario, Canada, and were introduced to the U.S. West Coast and British Columbia; the species is still expanding northward, per the Smithsonian's National Zoo. A 2018 genetic study of opossums from Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin suggested their spread may be helped by agricultural land development and, at the same time, limited by the animals' inability to forage in snow. They're opportunistic omnivores, eating small mammals, birds, insects, worms, plant material, fruits and seeds, and might also eat reptiles or amphibians depending on habitat. One tick figure doesn't hold up. A lab study on captive opossums estimated that they eat, on average, 5,500 tick larvae a week. But when a 2021 study searched the stomach contents of 32 Virginia opossums from central Illinois under a microscope, it did not locate any ticks or tick parts, and none of the 23 published diet studies it found had identified ticks either. The researchers concluded that ticks are not a preferred diet item for the species. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is playing dead something an opossum decides to do? No. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance calls it "a completely involuntary and automatic physiological response to danger," more like fainting from fright than pulling a prank on a predator. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance]())* ### What is a Virginia opossum's dental formula? Animal Diversity Web gives it as 5/4, 1/1, 3/3, 4/4, upper over lower for each tooth type on one side of the jaw. Doubled for both sides, that comes to 50 teeth. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### Is a Virginia opossum the same kind of animal as an Australian possum? No. The story goes, says San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, that Captain John Smith first used the name "opossum" in western culture in 1608, and in the late 1700s the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks likened Australian tree-dwelling marsupials to "an animal of the Opossum tribe." True possums belong to a separate order of marsupials, native to Australia and New Guinea. *(Source: [San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance]())* ## Sources 1. [Virginia opossum. Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.]() 2. [Opossum. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.]() 3. [Didelphis virginiana (Virginia opossum). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 4. [Jansa & Voss (2011). Adaptive Evolution of the Venom-Targeted vWF Protein in Opossums that Eat Pitvipers. PLoS ONE.]() 5. [Komives et al. (2016). Opossum peptide that can neutralize rattlesnake venom is expressed in E scherichia coli. Biotechnology Progress.]() 6. [Hennessy & Hild (2021). Are Virginia opossums really ecological traps for ticks? Groundtruthing laboratory observations. Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.]() 7. [Walsh & Tucker (2018). Contemporary range expansion of the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) impacted by humans and snow cover. Canadian Journal of Zoology.]() 8. [Pérez-Hernandez, Lew & Solari (2016). Didelphis virginiana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T40502A22176259.]() *Published September 6, 2026. 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