Maine’s 139 Virginia opossum records hug the southern and coastal counties, with Cumberland, York, and Kennebec holding most of them. That southern tilt fits the biology: Maine lies near the cold northern edge of this marsupial’s range, and its hold on the state loosens with every county north.
North America’s only marsupial
The opossum raises its young in a pouch, then carries them riding on its back, and it makes a living as a nocturnal generalist, eating insects, fruit, carrion, eggs, and whatever a backyard or farm edge offers. Famous for feigning death when cornered, it more often simply climbs or waddles off, its grasping tail helping it balance along branches and fences.
Warm corners of a cold state
Wooded river corridors, farm edges, and neighborhoods give opossums food and den sites, and places like the Kennebunk Plains mark the kind of open southern ground where they turn up. Bare ears, a naked tail, and thin fur are liabilities in a Maine January, so animals den up in woodchuck holes, brush piles, and outbuildings during hard cold and forage on milder nights. Records run through every month, with a modest November rise as opossums feed heavily ahead of winter.
Status in Maine
NatureServe ranks the Virginia opossum S4, Apparently Secure, in Maine, and the species is treated as native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
