Opossums are small, reclusive Las Vegas animals that have been either misunderstood or left unappreciated mainly due to the reasoning that they are from the family of rats. On the contrary, they belong to the family of Kangaroo and Koala. A female Nevada opossum would usually give birth twice a year to 5 or 8 babies which stay in her pouch for almost four months. These small, harmless creatures have often been targeted because they appear to be good defenders, or at least look the part.

Opossums are not very aggressive, neither destructive. You obviously get the idea from their size! They are often expected to act like a dog or a cat but it doesn't suit the Nevada opossum. They tend to use their teeth but only when it's necessary. An opossum has 50 sharp teeth and it's advised that one should not handle them casually as they can bite. They have short; pink tails which is an interesting aspect of them. The tails measure from 5 to 9 centimeters, depending on the size of the animal. It is prone to frostbite as it has no covering of fur. The opossums have tails that possess great ability of grasping. They can also wrap around stuff such as tree limbs, branches and even stabilize themselves while clambering around bushes. Opossums have also been spotted carrying grass or other materials of interest around their tails and this observation leads to the notion that they more or less consider it like a hand. This feature is known as prehensile, meaning a firm grasp. The tails also help them in order to balance when they are quickly walking across. They make use of their tails while scaling objects and they can practically do that with any obstacle. Better keep your pet Las Vegas Opossum indoors!

The female Las Vegas opossum uses her tail to build a warm den before giving birth. She does that by carrying leaves on her tail back to the den and later tucks them into a loop, again which she has created with the use of its tail. According to a common myth, the young ones ride on their mothers' tails. However, the babies do use the tail to firmly attach themselves with their mother but they use the feet as well. The mothers do not carry their young ones entirely on their tails but it does help them to keep their babies from falling off!

An opossum may be seen dangling by its tail but it does not sleep around that way. This is again a common misconception that they sleep hanging upside down while they only do that for fairly short periods of time. Only the young, juvenile Nevada opossums are able to hang by their tails as the adult is unable to do that because of its weight.

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