Interesting facts about Opossum by weird square

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The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), commonly known as the North American opossum, is a marsupial found in North America. It is the only marsupial found north of Mexico. In the United States, it is typically referred to simply as a possum. It is a solitary and nocturnal animal about the size of a domestic cat. It is a successful opportunist. It is familiar to many North Americans as it is often seen near towns, rummaging through garbage cans.
The Virginia opossum is the original animal named “opossum”. The word comes from Algonquian wapathemwa meaning “white animal”. Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently called simply “possum”. The name opossum is applied more generally to any of the other marsupials of the families Didelphidae and Caenolestidae.
The generic name (Didelphis) is derived from Ancient Greek: di, “two”, and delphus, “womb”.
The possums of Australia, whose name is derived from a similarity to the opossums of the Americas, are also marsupials, but of the order Diprotodontia.
The Virginia opossum is found throughout Central America and North America east of the Rockies from Costa Rica to southern Ontario and is expanding its range northward, northwesterly and northeasterly at a significant pace. Its pre-European settlement range was generally as far north as Maryland; southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; Missouri and Kansas. The clearing of dense forests in these areas and further north by settlers allowed the opossum to move northward. Since 1900 it has expanded its range to include most of New England (although only the far southwest of Maine); New York State, extreme southwestern Quebec; most of southern and eastern Ontario; all of Michigan and Wisconsin; most of Minnesota, southeastern South Dakota and most of Nebraska. Areas such as Rhode Island and Waterloo Region and Simcoe County in southern Ontario rarely had sightings of opossums in the 1960s but now have them regularly, likely due to global warming causing winters to be warmer with less snow. Some people speculate the expansion into Ontario mostly occurred by opossums accidentally being transferred across the St. Lawrence, Niagara, Detroit and St. Clair Rivers by motor vehicles or trains they may have climbed upon. As the opossum is not suited to colder winters or heavy snow, its population may be significantly reduced if a colder winter with heavier snow occurs in a particular northern region. Its ancestors evolved in South America, but invaded North America in the Great American Interchange, after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama about 3 million years ago.