Connecticut sits near the northern limit of the Virginia opossum’s range, yet the atlas holds 877 records of it, spread through all eight counties and thickest in New Haven and Hartford. North America’s only marsupial has made itself thoroughly at home in the state, helped along by the milder winters of the coast and the lower river valleys.
A southerner coping with cold
The opossum expanded north through the Northeast over the past two centuries, and a Connecticut winter remains its main adversary. Its ears, tail, and toes are thinly furred and prone to frostbite, so shelter matters more here than farther south: brush piles, hollow logs, and the spaces under sheds and porches. Records at Bluff Point State Park, Sherwood Island State Park, and other coastal ground reflect that milder shoreline, where a sheltered den and an omnivore’s diet of fruit, insects, carrion, and eggs can carry an animal through the cold months.
An October crest
Opossums stay active all year and do not hibernate, but Connecticut’s record climbs to its peak in October. Fall is when the year’s young, raised in the mother’s pouch and weaned by late summer, disperse to find ground of their own, and when opossums of every age forage hard ahead of the lean season, crossing the roads and yards where they are most often seen.
Status in Connecticut
NatureServe ranks the Virginia opossum S5, Secure, in Connecticut, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
