National Opossum Day Applies to Virginia Opossums Saturday, October 18

Summary: National Opossum Day applies to Virginia opossums, as North American marsupials native to Canada, Mexico and the United States, Saturday, October 18, 2025.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia, founded in 1982 in the independent city of Waynesboro, north-central Virginia, operates as "an internationally recognized teaching hospital for wildlife medicine and clinical research," according to the "About" page on the Center's website (https://wildlifecenter.org/about).
On Thursday, Sep. 4, 2025, the Wildlife Center of Virginia announced Lucy the Virginia Opossum (lower right image) as a new appointee to the Center's ambassador team ("Introducing Lucy the Virginia Opossum!"; https://wildlifecenter.org/news-events/news/2025/introducing-lucy-virginia-opossum). The finding of the injured young opossum near a church in the independent city of Harrisonburg, north-central Virginia, occasioned her admittance to the Wildlife Center in July 2025. Numerous fractures and puncture wounds on her face's right side likely resulted from a predator attack. Irreversible damage to her right eye necessitated its surgical removal.
Her disablement, which impossibilitated her safe survival in the wild, qualified the non-releasable opossum for immediate training as an education ambassador. Lucy's responsibilities in outreach include appearances at community events, libraries and schools in programs on her species, wildlife rehabilitation and co-existence with nature's "wild neighbors."
Lucy's care is available for sponsorship via the Center's Caring for Critters program.
Lucy's name, selected via an auction at the Center's Annual Gala, held Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025, memorializes the winning bidder's grandmother.:
Wildlife Center of Virginia, via Facebook, Oct. 18, 2025

National Opossum Day applies to Virginia opossums, as North American marsupials (pouched for nursing newborns; Latin marsūpium, "pouch/purse"; Greek μαρσίππιον) native to Canada, Mexico and the United States, Saturday, October 18, 2025.

The Virginia opossum belongs within the Chordata phylum (Latin chordata [Greek χορδή, "guts/tripe"], "cord/string-having," chorda -ata; Greek φῦλον, "nation/race/set/tribe") of the Animalia (Latin animal, "living-creature") kingdom. Body hair, mammary-gland milk and lower-jaw bone connected directly to their skulls count Virginia opossums among the animal kingdom's Mammalia (Latin mamma, "breast['s]," mamma -alia) class. Virginia opossums delivering their newborns after a 13-day gestation to 70-day nursing in maternal pouches defines their Didelphimorphia ("two-womb-appearance-/shape-like," Greek δι- δελφύς μορφή -ία) marsupial-order membership.

Genus, species Didelphis virginiana ("two-womb of-Virginia," Greek δι- δελφύς; Latin Virginia -ānus) emphasize taxonomist Robert Kerr 's (Thurs., Oct. 20, 1757-Mon., Oct. 11, 1813) Virginia-encountered specimen.

As many as 25 3/16-inch- (4.8-millimeter-) wide, 7/16-inch- (11-millimeter-) long newborns in each winter litter, in every early-summer litter, find their way to individual, maternal-pouch nipples.

Their mothers guard the opossum young 2, 2-plus months even as 60- to 70-day-olds never go on their own until perhaps 3 to 4 weeks later. They have to hone climbing and foraging habits even as maternal backs, maternal pouches otherwise holding them, house them whenever their mothers head from their homes. Opossum young itinerate as 4, 4-plus-month-olds to impermanent inhabitations near water and woodlands even as they install their nests in abandoned burrows, attics, barns and sheds.

National Opossum Day Tues, Oct. 18, 2025, jubilates Virginia opossums even as two-year lifespans journey them around crayfishing, fishing, underwater-swimming, wading streams; deciduous forests; urban areas.

"Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) range": "Range of habitat, showing both historic, native range and introductions in the west; these areas are currently expanding northward (e.g., into Wisconsin and Minnesota)," per "Distribution" (page 3) and distribution maps (page 4; Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2) in A.L. Gardner and M.E. Sunquist, "Opossum: Didelphis virginiana," in G.A. Feldhamer, B.C. Thompson and J.A. Chapman, eds., Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation (2003); distribution data from "Virginia Opossum Didelphus virginia," IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/40502/22176259): IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Virginia opossums gently keep to themselves even as animals and people know them as dead- and fresh-animal, fresh-plant generalistic, opportunistic omnivores (Latin omnivorus, "all-/everything-/-devouring/-eating," omnis vorus).

Just-independentized and mature opossums like such fresh foods as corn, grains, grasses; eggs; such insects as ants, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, ticks; tree berries, fruits, nuts, seeds. They munch such small vertebrates as birds, frogs, lizards, meadow-voles, mice, rats, shrew even as crayfish, fish; earthworms; snails; and such matter in Virginia-opossum omnivorous diets. Virginia-opossum maturity permanentizes 15-/22.5- to 21.5-/31.5-inch- (38-/57- to 55-/80-centimeter-) long bodies, 7- to 12-inch- (18- to 30.5-centimeter-) long tails, 2.5- to 11.5-pound (1- to 5-kilogram) weights.

National Opossum Day observes Virginia opossums even as carrion chickens, rabbits, "roadkill"; compost piles; discarded, garbage-can, leftover scraps; such poisonous snakes as cottonmouths, rattlesnakes occupy them.

Virginia-opossum maturity permanentizes 15-/22.5- to 21.5-/31.5-inch- (38-/57- to 55-/80-centimeter-) long bodies, 7- to 12-inch- (18- to 30.5-centimeter-) long tails, 2.5- to 11.5-pound (1- to 5-kilogram) weights.

Virginia opossums queue 50 teeth even as each lower-jaw, each upper quantifies respective 5-incisor, 1-canine, 3-premolar, 4-molar and 4-incisor, 1-canine, 3-premolar, 4-molar front- to rear-mouth dentitions. They realize black gray-, gray-, white gray-furred, hairlessly long-tailed bodies; big, black, close-positioned eyes; pink-nosed, round-eared, silver-furred faces even as break-resistant teeth recycle calcium-replete food-source bones/cartilage. They score 4-mile- (6.437376-kilometer-) per-hour runs; superior day-night smell, touch, night-distance, short-distance vision; swaying walks; even as they sequence flexible-grip hands; long-fingered tracks; thumb-like hind-feet toes.

National Opossum Day treasures Virginia opossums even as the only Canadian-Unitedstatesian native marsupial takes environment-polluting carrion and teaches us dead-playing, hiding, hissing-and-running, odor-releasing, tree-climbing non-violent tactics.

As the only native Unitedstatesian marsupial, Virginia opossums nurse their babies in pouches located on their mother's abdomens. Breeding occurs twice or thrice annually, from February through September; pouch occupancy lasts for about two months, according to "If you find a baby opossum" on the Wildlife Center of Virginia website (https://wildlifecenter.org/help-advice/healthy-young-wildlife/if-you-find-baby-opossum).
The face of one baby opossum and the tails of other babies are visible in image of mother opossum with her pouch-occupying babies: Sophia Stella, at Opossum Lovers, via Facebook June 15, 2025

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

The Wildlife Center of Virginia, founded in 1982 in the independent city of Waynesboro, north-central Virginia, operates as "an internationally recognized teaching hospital for wildlife medicine and clinical research," according to the "About" page on the Center's website (https://wildlifecenter.org/about).
On Thursday, Sep. 4, 2025, the Wildlife Center of Virginia announced Lucy the Virginia Opossum (lower right image) as a new appointee to the Center's ambassador team ("Introducing Lucy the Virginia Opossum!"; https://wildlifecenter.org/news-events/news/2025/introducing-lucy-virginia-opossum). The finding of the injured young opossum near a church in the independent city of Harrisonburg, north-central Virginia, occasioned her admittance to the Wildlife Center in July 2025. Numerous fractures and puncture wounds on her face's right side likely resulted from a predator attack. Irreversible damage to her right eye necessitated its surgical removal.
Her disablement, which impossibilitated her safe survival in the wild, qualified the non-releasable opossum for immediate training as an education ambassador. Lucy's responsibilities in outreach include appearances at community events, libraries and schools in programs on her species, wildlife rehabilitation and co-existence with nature's "wild neighbors."
Lucy's care is available for sponsorship via the Center's Caring for Critters program.
Lucy's name, selected via an auction at the Center's Annual Gala, held Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025, memorializes the winning bidder's grandmother.:
Wildlife Center of Virginia, via Facebook, Oct. 18, 2025, @ https://www.facebook.com/wildlifecenter/posts/although-there-is-some-debate-over-whether-national-opossum-day-is-october-17th-/1229158045908186/

"Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) range": "Range of habitat, showing both historic, native range and introductions in the west; these areas are currently expanding northward (e.g., into Wisconsin and Minnesota)," per "Distribution" (page 3) and distribution maps (page 4; Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2) in A.L. Gardner and M.E. Sunquist, "Opossum: Didelphis virginiana," in G.A. Feldhamer, B.C. Thompson and J.A. Chapman, eds., Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation (2003); distribution data from "Virginia Opossum Didelphus virginia," IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/40502/22176259): IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virginia_Opossum_range.png

As the only native Unitedstatesian marsupial, Virginia opossums nurse their babies in pouches located on their mother's abdomens. Breeding occurs twice or thrice annually, from February through September; pouch occupancy lasts for about two months, according to "If you find a baby opossum" on the Wildlife Center of Virginia website (https://wildlifecenter.org/help-advice/healthy-young-wildlife/if-you-find-baby-opossum).
The face of one baby opossum and the tails of other babies are visible in image of mother opossum with her pouch-occupying babies: Sophia Stella, at Opossum Lovers, via Facebook June 15, 2025, @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/opossumslovers/posts/23976477621948785/

For further information:

Augee, Michael L. 2020. "Opossum." Pages 811-812. In: The World Book Encyclopedia. Volume 14: N-O. Chicago IL: World Book, Inc.

Bambaradeniya, Dr. Channa; Cinthya Flores; Dr. Joshua Ginsburg; Dwight Houng; Dr. Susan Lumpkin; George McKay; Dr. John Muscik; Dr. Patrick Quilty; Dr. Bernard Stonehouse; Dr. Eric John Woehler; Dr. David Woodruff. 2009. "Virginia Opossum." Pages 16, 95, 259b." The Illustrated Atlas of Wildlife. Sydney NSW, Australia: Weldon Owen Pty Ltd.

Berne, Emma Carlson. 2015. Opossums. PowerKIDS Press Series Scavengers: Eating Nature's Trash. New York NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

Dennis-Bryan, Dr. Kim; and Dr. Juliet Clutton-Brock. 2008. "Unfussy eater: Virginia opossum." Page 200. In: Dr. Charlotte Uhlenbroek. Editor-in-Chief. 2008. Animal Life. Mammals contributions by Dr. Kim Dennis-Bryan. Mammals consultations with Dr. Juliet Clutton-Brock. Authenticated by the American Museum of Natural History. New York NY: DK Publishing.

Johnson, Douthat State Park Chief Ranger Hannah. 18 October 2025. "All About Opossums." Eagle Rock, Botetourt County, VA: Eagle Rock Library.

Macdonald, David W. Editor. 2006. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals.

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 October 2025. "National Opossum Day Applies to Virginia Opossums Saturday, October 18." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2025/10/national-opossum-day-applies-to.html

O'Connell, Margaret A. 2006. "American Opossums." Pages 14-19. In: David W. Macdonald. Editor. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Mammals.

Uhlenbroek, Dr. Charlotte. Editor-in-Chief. 2008. Animal Life. Mammals contributions by Dr. Kim Dennis-Bryan. Mammals consultations with Dr. Juliet Clutton-Brock. Authenticated by the American Museum of Natural History. New York NY: DK Publishing.