It is hard to guess what a Black-shouldered opossum weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Black-shouldered opossum (Caluromysiops irrupta) on average weights 258 grams (0.57 lbs).
The Black-shouldered opossum is from the family Didelphidae (genus: Caluromysiops). They can live for up to 7.83 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 23.4 cm (0′ 10″). Usually, Black-shouldered opossums have 2 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The black-shouldered opossum (Caluromysiops irrupta), also known as the white-eared opossum is an opossum known from western Brazil and southeastern Peru. It was first described by Colin Campbell Sanborn, curator of Field Museum of Natural History, in 1951. The black-shouldered opossum is characterized by a gray coat, gray underbelly, and broad black stripes that extend from the forefeet, meet on the shoulders, run along the midline of the back and then split into parallel stripes that run down the hindfeet. Little is known of the behavior of the black-shouldered opossum. It is nocturnal (active mainly at night) and arboreal (tree-living); it is known to feed on fruits and rodents. The opossum inhabits humid forests. The IUCN classifies it as least concern.
Animals of the same family as a Black-shouldered opossum
We found other animals of the Didelphidae family:
- White-bellied woolly mouse opossum with a weight of 93 grams
- Big-eared opossum bringing 1.11 kilos (2.45 lbs) to the scale
- Southern red-sided opossum with a weight of 48 grams
- Heavy-browed mouse opossum with a weight of 47 grams
- Red mouse opossum with a weight of 63 grams
- White-eared opossum bringing 1.03 kilos (2.27 lbs) to the scale
- Tschudi’s slender opossum with a weight of 41 grams
- Northern three-striped opossum with a weight of 19 grams
- Woolly mouse opossum with a weight of 107 grams
- Common fat-tailed mouse opossum with a weight of 28 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Black-shouldered opossum
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Caluromysiops irrupta:
- Edwards’s long-tailed giant rat bringing 304 grams to the scale
- Spiny Ceram rat bringing 306 grams to the scale
- Mouse-tailed Atlantic spiny rat bringing 284 grams to the scale
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher bringing 267 grams to the scale
- Lundomys bringing 238 grams to the scale
- Armored rat bringing 281 grams to the scale
- Squirrel glider bringing 230 grams to the scale
- Speckled dasyure bringing 212 grams to the scale
- Silky anteater bringing 259 grams to the scale
- Ihering’s Atlantic spiny rat bringing 221 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Black-shouldered opossum
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Black-shouldered opossum:
- White-tailed antsangy with a size of 22.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Red slender loris with a size of 22.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Ethiopian dwarf mongoose with a size of 23 cm (0′ 10″)
- Mindanao squirrel with a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Smoky pocket gopher with a size of 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Fire-footed rope squirrel with a size of 20.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Bioko Allen’s bushbaby with a size of 20 cm (0′ 8″)
- Philippine tree squirrel with a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Cotton-top tamarin with a size of 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Pygmy rabbit with a size of 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Black-shouldered opossum
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (2) as a Black-shouldered opossum:
- Babault’s mouse shrew
- African striped weasel
- Kimberley rock rat
- Brown hyena
- Sonoran woodrat
- Trinidad spiny pocket mouse
- Crested agouti
- Java pipistrelle
- Chestnut tree mouse
- Lusitanian pine vole
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Black-shouldered opossum
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Black-shouldered opossum:
- Jamaican coney with an average maximal age of 8.25 years
- Whiskered bat with an average maximal age of 9.25 years
- Eastern pygmy possum with an average maximal age of 8 years
- Pacarana with an average maximal age of 9.33 years
- Gray dorcopsis with an average maximal age of 8 years
- North African hedgehog with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Spectral bat with an average maximal age of 6.5 years
- Kowari with an average maximal age of 7 years
- Doria’s tree-kangaroo with an average maximal age of 8 years
- Lesser grison with an average maximal age of 7.25 years