Interesting Creatures... Bare-tailed woolly opossum (Caluromys philander)

Interesting Creatures… Bare-tailed woolly opossum (Caluromys philander)

Apr 01, 2018 Features / Columnists, Interesting Creatures in Guyana

The bare-tailed woolly opossum (Caluromys philander) is an opossum from South America. It was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758.

It is characterized by a grey head, brown to grey coat, orange to grey underside and a partially naked tail. A distinctive, narrow dark brown stripe runs between the eyes and the ears, from the tip of the nose to the back of the ears.

Similar but broad streaks run from brown rings around either eye. Grayish fur separates these stripes from one another. Ears are large and almost always hairless. The coat is thick, soft and woolly; the flanks may be grayer than the back.

The dorsal hairs continue up to 5–7 centimetres (2.0–2.8 in) onto the tail, after which it is naked, as the name suggests. The tail is dark brown towards the end, spotted with white and dark brown, terminating in a white or yellowish white tip.

It is a solitary creature; there is hardly any social interaction except between mother and juveniles and in mating pairs.

The opossum constructs nests in tree cavities, and its litter size ranges from one to seven. Gestation lasts 25 days, and the juveniles exit the pouch after three months; weaning occurs a month later.

The bare-tailed woolly opossum is one of the three members of Caluromys, and is placed in the family Didelphidae in the marsupial order Didelphimorphia. The size appears to decrease from Venezuela to Suriname; the mean weight is 170 grams (6.0 oz) in Venezuela and 250 grams (8.8 oz) in Suriname. The head-and-body length is typically between 16 and 26 centimetres (6.3 and 10.2 in). The ears measure 3 to 3.5 centimetres (1.2 to 1.4 in), the tail 25 to 36 centimetres (9.8 to 14.2 in) and the hind feet 3.2 to 3.9 centimetres (1.3 to 1.5 in).

The bare-tailed woolly opossum is nocturnal (active mainly at night), and thus difficult to observe or capture. Nevertheless, it is one of the very few opossums that have been successfully studied in detail. A study showed that activity of bare-tailed woolly opossums can be affected by the extent of moonlight. While activity in males dropped from new moon to full moon (that is, with increasing exposure to moonlight), activity in females remained largely unaffected.

The opossum is arboreal (tree-living) and a good climber. A study showed that the tail, being prehensile, can act as an additional limb for locomotion, avoiding falls and carrying leaves to build nests. It builds nests with dry leaves in tree cavities.

Individuals tend to be aggressive to one another; hisses, grunts and even distress calls accompany agonistic behaviour.

Bare-tailed woolly opossums, like other Caluromys species, will bite on being handled or to escape predators. Predators include the jaguarundi and margay.

An omnivore, the bare-tailed woolly opossum feeds on fruits, vegetables, gum, nectar, small birds and reptiles. A study of the foraging behaviour of the bare-tailed woolly opossum and the sympatric kinkajou showed that both feed on a variety of plants, choose plants by their abundance, show similar preferences, and favour certain plant parts at certain times of the year. A notable difference between the two was that while the kinkajou focused on plants with a wide distribution, the bare-tailed woolly opossum also fed on less common plants.

The bare-tailed woolly opossum inhabits subtropical forests, rainforests, secondary forests and plantations. It can occur up to an altitude of 1,200–1,800 metres (3,900–5,900 ft) above the sea level. The range extends from northern Venezuela eastward to northeastern and southcentral Brazil, and includes Guyana, French Guiana, Margarita Island, Trinidad, and Suriname.

The IUCN classifies this opossum as least concern due to its wide distribution and presumably large population. However, the survival of this opossum is threatened by deforestation and habitat loss.

[Source: Wikipedia]