Didelphis marsupialis marsupialis The common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis), also called the southern or black-eared opossum[2] or gambá, and sometimes called a possum, is a marsupial species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pacific Ocean to the central coast of Peru), including Trinidad and Tobago and the Windwards in the Caribbean,[2] where it is called manicou.

This opossum is found in tropical and subtropical forest, both primary and secondary, at altitudes up to 2200 m.[2] They use a wide range of nest sites.

Most commonly they will create one in the hollow of a tree; however, they will also dig a burrow or nest in any dark location if nothing else is suitable (which often gets them in trouble with humans).

With a body length of nearly a foot, and a tail that can reach almost two feet, the common opossum is one of the larger members of its family.

Raiding trash cans, nesting in locations that are not suitable, and causing mayhem if encountered within a human living space, they are often trapped and killed.

[6] Common opossums have a broad ability to adapt to environmental changes, and their teeth allow them to eat many different types of food, which is obtained mostly on the ground.

They can eat insects (such as beetles and grasshoppers)[9] and other invertebrates (such as earthworms),[10] small vertebrates (toads [such as cane toads], snakes [such as South American rattlesnakes], birds [such as lance-tailed manakins], and small mammals),[11] fruits, vegetables, nectar,[12] and also carrion.