Its fur is pale gray to gray black. It has a long tail which it can use to hold onto things. Its feet and hands each have 5 toes. The first toe on each back foot is clawless and opposable. This means that the animal can use its toes like you use your fingers.
Opossums have a pouch in which babies are carried.
This makes the opossum a marsupial. Few opossums live to the age of 2 and most only survive about one year in the wild. It spends a lot of time on the ground, but is also a wonderful climber. It has excellent hearing and relies mostly on this sense when hunting. Opossums eat animals that have been killed in the road, berries, persimmons, corn, insects, mice, moles, frogs, lizards, snakes, plants, and earthworms.