How many baby Bare-tailed woolly opossums are in a litter?
A Bare-tailed woolly opossum (Caluromys philander) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 8 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 24 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 1 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Caluromys). An adult Bare-tailed woolly opossum grows up to a size of 22.4 cm (0′ 9″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The bare-tailed woolly opossum (Caluromys philander) is an opossum from South America. It was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The bare-tailed woolly opossum is characterized by a gray head, brown to gray coat, orange to gray underside and a partially naked tail. It is nocturnal (active mainly at night) and solitary; 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 inhabits subtropical forests, rainforests, secondary forests, and plantations; its range extends from northern Venezuela to northeastern and southcentral Brazil. The IUCN classifies this opossum as least concern.
Other animals of the family Didelphidae
Bare-tailed woolly opossum is a member of the Didelphidae, as are these animals:
- Anderson’s four-eyed opossum becoming 0.75 years old
- Little woolly mouse opossum raching a size of 13.7 cm (0′ 6″)
- Tyler’s mouse opossum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Grayish mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Handley’s slender opossum weighting only 30 grams
- Robinson’s mouse opossum with 9 babies per pregnancy
- Southern red-sided opossum weighting only 48 grams
- Bare-tailed woolly mouse opossum weighting only 119 grams
- White-bellied fat-tailed mouse opossum weighting only 15 grams
- Bishop’s slender opossum raching a size of 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
Animals that share a litter size with Bare-tailed woolly opossum
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Hairy-tailed bolo mouse
- Sandstone false antechinus
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat
- Desert pygmy mouse
- Rudd’s mouse
- Bushveld gerbil
- Hairy-tailed mole
- Eastern cottontail
- Indian hedgehog
- Red-cheeked dunnart
Animals that get as old as a Bare-tailed woolly opossum
Other animals that usually reach the age of 6.33 years:
- Dobson’s shrew tenrec with 5.58 years
- Tullberg’s soft-furred mouse with 5.17 years
- Kowari with 7 years
- African striped weasel with 5.17 years
- Feathertail glider with 7.17 years
- Forest giant squirrel with 5.08 years
- American hog-nosed skunk with 7 years
- Yellow-pine chipmunk with 5.17 years
- Maned rat with 7.5 years
- Arctic hare with 7 years
Animals with the same weight as a Bare-tailed woolly opossum
What other animals weight around 246 grams (0.54 lbs)?
- White-throated woodrat weighting 208 grams
- Fire-footed rope squirrel weighting 243 grams
- Black-shouldered opossum weighting 258 grams
- Lombok flying fox weighting 256 grams
- White-spined Atlantic spiny rat weighting 284 grams
- Pacific spiny rat weighting 284 grams
- Bushy-tailed woodrat weighting 286 grams
- Sonoran woodrat weighting 227 grams
- Red slender loris weighting 249 grams
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat weighting 251 grams
Animals with the same size as a Bare-tailed woolly opossum
Also reaching around 22.4 cm (0′ 9″) in size do these animals:
- Black flying fox gets as big as 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Great-tailed triok gets as big as 22.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Sikkim rat gets as big as 18.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Franklin’s ground squirrel gets as big as 24.5 cm (0′ 10″)
- Green bush squirrel gets as big as 19.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Philippine forest rat gets as big as 19 cm (0′ 8″)
- Short-furred dasyure gets as big as 18 cm (0′ 8″)
- Red-legged sun squirrel gets as big as 23.8 cm (0′ 10″)
- Sonoran woodrat gets as big as 19.6 cm (0′ 8″)
- Ihering’s Atlantic spiny rat gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)