How many baby Derby’s woolly opossums are in a litter?
A Derby’s woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 12.5 cm (0′ 5″). They are a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Caluromys). An adult Derby’s woolly opossum grows up to a size of 23.1 cm (0′ 10″).
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.
Derby’s woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus), or the Central American woolly opossum, is an opossum found in deciduous and moist evergreen forests of Central America, from southern Mexico to western Ecuador and Colombia. It was first described by English naturalist George Robert Waterhouse, and named in honor of Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Derby’s woolly opossum is the largest in its genus, with a total length of 60 to 70 centimetres (24 to 28 in) and weight between 200 and 400 grams (7.1 and 14.1 oz). The coat is brown and the underside white-buff to golden-brown. The opossum is nocturnal (active mainly at night), arboreal (tree-living) and solitary. Diet consists of fruits, nectar, small invertebrates and vertebrates. The time when breeding takes place varies geographically. The litter size ranges from one to six. The IUCN classifies this opossum as least concern.
Other animals of the family Didelphidae
Derby’s woolly opossum is a member of the Didelphidae, as are these animals:
- Water opossum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Yellow-sided opossum with 12 babies per pregnancy
- Pinheiro’s slender opossum raching a size of 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Linnaeus’s mouse opossum with 7 babies per pregnancy
- White-bellied woolly mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Heavy-browed mouse opossum weighting only 47 grams
- Delicate slender opossum with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Patagonian opossum weighting only 78 grams
- Grayish mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Mexican mouse opossum with 11 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Derby’s woolly opossum
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- East African highland shrew
- Four-toed hedgehog
- Swamp rabbit
- Taiwan field mouse
- Desert hedgehog
- Graphiurus hueti
- Stella wood mouse
- Cape York rat
- Borneo black-banded squirrel
- Xerus erythropus
Animals that get as old as a Derby’s woolly opossum
Other animals that usually reach the age of 5 years:
- Mountain pocket gopher with 5 years
- Rufous horseshoe bat with 5 years
- Tullberg’s soft-furred mouse with 5.17 years
- Brown-eared woolly opossum with 5 years
- Bunny rat with 5.5 years
- Little free-tailed bat with 5 years
- Forest dormouse with 4 years
- White-bellied duiker with 5.25 years
- Spectacled hare-wallaby with 6 years
- Saharan striped polecat with 5 years
Animals with the same weight as a Derby’s woolly opossum
What other animals weight around 328 grams (0.72 lbs)?
- Northern glider weighting 278 grams
- Simons’s spiny rat weighting 284 grams
- Sulawesi flying fox weighting 383 grams
- Kinabalu squirrel weighting 324 grams
- Coquerel’s giant mouse lemur weighting 326 grams
- Richardson’s ground squirrel weighting 325 grams
- Common yellow-toothed cavy weighting 387 grams
- Common gundi weighting 289 grams
- Temotu flying fox weighting 274 grams
- Pacific spiny rat weighting 284 grams
Animals with the same size as a Derby’s woolly opossum
Also reaching around 23.1 cm (0′ 10″) in size do these animals:
- European hedgehog gets as big as 23.7 cm (0′ 10″)
- Large mosaic-tailed rat gets as big as 20.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Asian red-cheeked squirrel gets as big as 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Big-headed African mole-rat gets as big as 20.9 cm (0′ 9″)
- Bushy-tailed woodrat gets as big as 20.9 cm (0′ 9″)
- Papuan bandicoot gets as big as 19.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Sulawesi naked-backed fruit bat gets as big as 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Soft-spined Atlantic spiny rat gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Smoky flying squirrel gets as big as 22.9 cm (0′ 10″)
- Ihering’s Atlantic spiny rat gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)