#0298 · 🦊 mammals
Southern Opossum
🇳🇱 Midden-Amerikaanse Opossum ·Didelphis marsupialis
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The common opossum ( Didelphis marsupialis ), also called the southern or black-eared opossum or gambá , is a mammal species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pacific Ocean to the central coast of Peru), including the Lesser Antilles, where it is called manicou . It prefers the woods, but can also live in fields and cities. The common opossum is sometimes used for food in islands in the West Indies by...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 7,115 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Southern Opossum
- Nederlands
- Midden-Amerikaanse Opossum
- scientific name
- Didelphis marsupialis
- class
- Mammalia
- order
- Didelphimorphia
- family
- Didelphidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 7,115
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Didelphidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 42649, Wikidata Q194663, GBIF 2439920, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.