#0202 · 🦊 mammals
Virginia Opossum
🇳🇱 Noord-Amerikaanse Opossum ·Didelphis virginiana
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The Virginia opossum ( Didelphis virginiana ), commonly known as the North American opossum , is a marsupial found in North America. It is the only marsupial found north of Mexico. In the United States, it is typically referred to simply as a possum . It is a solitary and nocturnal animal about the size of a domestic cat. It is a successful opportunist. It is familiar to many North Americans as it is often seen near towns, rummaging through...
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.
- 77,461 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Robert Kerr in 1792 (234 years ago).
- Not originally Dutch: it was introduced to the Netherlands.
fact sheet
- English
- Virginia Opossum
- Nederlands
- Noord-Amerikaanse Opossum
- scientific name
- Didelphis virginiana
- class
- Mammalia
- order
- Didelphimorphia
- family
- Didelphidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- in NL
- introduced
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 77,461
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- 0.2 g
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1792 by Robert Kerr
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Didelphidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 42652, Wikidata Q147267, GBIF 2439923, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.