Are opossums endangered? Well, it depends on which kind of opossum you’re talking about. There are actually more than 60 species of opossum , which are more or less threatened. They’re all part of the Didelphidae family of marsupials. Fortunately, most species in the family have healthy populations. The one we most commonly think of, the Virginia opossum ( Didelphis virginiana ), is actually spreading. The Virginia opossum, also called the common opossum, originated in tropical regions and its range is expanding further north as climate change warms the planet. Not every species of opossum has fared as well, though. Here are a few opossums you may not have heard of and where they sit on The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species . The Red List uses levels to denote how threatened a species is. From least to most endangered, those levels are: least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild
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