Virginia opossum records cluster most densely in Rock Creek Park, with additional reports from Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, the U.S. National Arboretum, and Anacostia Park, a spread that tracks the city’s wooded parkland and river edges rather than any single hotspot. With 61 records logged, it’s one of the more frequently recorded mammals in this DC dataset.
This opossum is North America’s only marsupial, and it’s built for exactly the patchwork of woods, yards, and waterways DC offers. It doesn’t dig its own den, instead moving between tree hollows, brush piles, and culverts along the Anacostia and Rock Creek, and it eats almost anything, carrion, insects, fruit, and whatever else it finds along a trail or backyard.
Reports turn up in every month, with the heaviest clustering in April, likely tied to when young opossums are dispersing and more visible rather than any true seasonal shift in numbers. A record near the Arboretum or Anacostia Park shows where someone spotted one, not where the species is thickest on the ground.
Full species profile
