History, location, habitat, description, behavior, and reproduction. The first known usage of the word opossum occured in 1610 in promotional literature for the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement. It read: There are ... Apossouns, in shape like to pigges. One must remember that the pigges pigs were a much more feral looking animal in the 1600s, with longer hair, unlike the round pink pigs we are accustomed to today. This word Apossoun was taken from the Algonquian Indian word for the animal. Although other animals in South America and Australia are called possums, they are really not closely related to the Virginia animal and only derive their name by dint of a general similar shape. True opossums are unique to North America.

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