North America’s only marsupial turns up across essentially all of Florida, from Merritt Island on the Atlantic coast to Big Cypress in the south and Apalachicola National Forest in the Panhandle, a spread that fits an opportunistic omnivore comfortable in nearly any habitat with cover and a food source. Every one of the state’s 4,000-plus records comes through GBIF rather than iNaturalist, unusual for such a common mammal and a sign that survey and specimen data still carries most of what’s documented here.
Records climb into an April and May peak, more than double the summer low, likely tied to breeding-season movement and young opossums riding along before dispersing on their own. This species famously “plays possum,” going limp and unresponsive when threatened, an involuntary reflex rather than a conscious choice, and NatureServe hasn’t yet assigned Florida a numeric rank for the species (SNR).
Full species profile
