Virginia opossums appear in 558 New Jersey records spread remarkably evenly across the state, from Morris and Middlesex down through Gloucester, Ocean, and Cape May, with no single stronghold. Kittatinny Valley State Park, Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area, and Gateway National Recreation Area anchor the named places.
North America’s only marsupial
The opossum raises its young in a pouch, carries them on its back once they outgrow it, and climbs with the help of a grasping tail and an opposable thumb on each hind foot. It eats almost anything, insects, fruit, carrion, eggs, pet food left outside, and it works woodland edges, stream corridors, and neighborhood yards with equal ease, mostly after dark. That broad diet and easy tolerance of people explain why New Jersey’s record spreads so evenly rather than bunching in the wilder corners of the state.
Thinly dressed for a northern winter
Opossums sit near the cold edge of what their body plan can handle. Their ears and tails carry almost no fur, and midwinter foraging regularly costs them frostbitten tips. They do not hibernate, but they den up through the worst cold and move on mild nights, so New Jersey reports continue in every month. The spring crest, March through May, matches the year’s first breeding, when females carry pouch young and encounters multiply.
Status in New Jersey
NatureServe ranks the Virginia opossum S5, Secure, in New Jersey. The species is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous.
Full species profile
