Pennsylvania’s 1,345 Virginia opossum records reach across 65 counties, from Philadelphia and the suburban counties of the southeast through Allegheny County in the west to Erie on the lakeshore. For a species that originated in the warm South and has spent the past century expanding northward, that spread shows how thoroughly it has settled into the state’s mix of woodland, farmland, and town.
An omnivore at home near people
The opossum eats nearly anything: insects, fruit, carrion, eggs, grain, and whatever a backyard or dumpster offers. It dens in hollow logs, brush piles, culverts, and spaces under porches rather than digging its own burrow, which suits settled country as well as forest. The heaviest record counts come from Philadelphia, Allegheny, Montgomery, and Bucks counties, where that flexible diet and sheltering habit pay off, while Presque Isle, Moraine, and Raccoon Creek state parks hold records along wooded shorelines and stream corridors in the state’s wilder corners.
A marsupial at the cold edge of its range
North America’s only marsupial carries its tiny young in a pouch, then on its back, until they can forage alone. It does not hibernate, and its thinly furred ears and tail often carry frostbite scars by spring. Even so, Pennsylvania records hold steady through every month of the year, climbing to their high point in April and May when warming nights bring opossums out to forage in numbers.
Status in Pennsylvania
NatureServe ranks the Virginia opossum S5, Secure, in Pennsylvania, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
