Alabama’s Virginia opossum record, 907 occurrences across 60 counties, reaches from Jefferson, Madison, and Tuscaloosa down to Baldwin and Mobile, taking in Dauphin Island’s maritime woods, Black Belt farm edges, and the ridges around Little River Canyon National Preserve on the way.
North America’s only marsupial
An opossum carries its young in a pouch, and once they outgrow it they ride on her back, a sight few other Alabama mammals can match. Beyond that trick it is a generalist built for edges: a prehensile tail and grasping hind feet for climbing, a nose for fallen fruit, insects, carrion, and eggs, and a habit of sheltering in brush piles, hollow logs, and spaces under buildings. Its last line of defense is the famous faint, collapsing limp with mouth open until the danger loses interest, an involuntary response rather than an act.
Early spring on the move
Counts crest from February through April, when the year’s first litters are growing and females carrying pouch young travel and forage more heavily. Opossums do not hibernate; they hole up through the coldest nights, but Alabama’s winters rarely hold them for long, and the calendar keeps records coming in every month.
Status in Alabama
NatureServe ranks the Virginia opossum S5, Secure, in Alabama, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
