Of Wisconsin’s 846 records for the Virginia opossum, the heavy majority sit in the southern tier, led by Dane, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Brown, and Ozaukee counties. That southern tilt is the clearest thing on the map, and it matches the biology of a marsupial living near the cold edge of its range.
North America’s only marsupial, working the cold limit
The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial native north of Mexico, raising its young in a pouch and later carrying them on its back. It is also poorly insulated for a Wisconsin winter, with thin fur and nearly hairless ears and tail that often show frostbite damage in northern animals. Records clustering in the milder southeast and along the Lake Michigan shoreline, with White River Marsh Wildlife Area and Havenwoods Forest Preserve And Nature Center among the top places, fit an animal that does best where winters bite a little less.
Out in every month of the year
Opossums do not hibernate. They den in hollow logs, brush piles, and spaces under buildings, emerging on mild nights to scavenge whatever the season offers, from insects and fruit to carrion. Wisconsin counts stay steady in every month, peaking in March, when lean late-winter conditions push hungry animals to range widely and snow still shows their tracks. When cornered, an opossum may collapse into the famous feigned death that gave playing possum its name.
Status in Wisconsin
NatureServe ranks the Virginia opossum S5, Secure, in Wisconsin, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
