It is hard to guess what a Brown-eared woolly opossum weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Brown-eared woolly opossum (Caluromys lanatus) on average weights 351 grams (0.77 lbs).
The Brown-eared woolly opossum is from the family Didelphidae (genus: Caluromys). They can live for up to 5 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 27.3 cm (0′ 11″).
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 brown-eared woolly opossum (Caluromys lanatus), also known as the western woolly opossum, is an opossum from South America. It was first described by German naturalist Ignaz von Olfers in 1818. The opossum is characterized by a brown to reddish brown coat and similarly colored limbs, yellow to orange underbelly, hairless, brown ears with a hint of pink, and a tail furred on the back for up to half of its length. The brown-eared woolly opossum is nocturnal (active mainly at night), solitary and omnivorous. The IUCN lists it as least concern.
Animals of the same family as a Brown-eared woolly opossum
We found other animals of the Didelphidae family:
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum with a weight of 34 grams
- Tate’s woolly mouse opossum with a weight of 112 grams
- Lutrine opossum with a weight of 556 grams
- Long-nosed short-tailed opossum with a weight of 765 grams
- Pygmy short-tailed opossum with a weight of 11 grams
- Dorothy’s slender opossum with a weight of 37 grams
- Gray slender opossum with a weight of 54 grams
- Junin slender opossum with a size of 11.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Heavy-browed mouse opossum with a weight of 47 grams
- Water opossum with a weight of 977 grams
Animals with the same weight as a Brown-eared woolly opossum
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Caluromys lanatus:
- Edwards’s long-tailed giant rat bringing 304 grams to the scale
- O’Connell’s spiny rat bringing 284 grams to the scale
- Uinta ground squirrel bringing 307 grams to the scale
- Wied’s marmoset bringing 375 grams to the scale
- Ruwenzori sun squirrel bringing 291 grams to the scale
- Mahogany glider bringing 361 grams to the scale
- Borneo black-banded squirrel bringing 324 grams to the scale
- Simons’s spiny rat bringing 284 grams to the scale
- Pousargues’s mongoose bringing 362 grams to the scale
- Armored rat bringing 281 grams to the scale
Animals with the same size as a Brown-eared woolly opossum
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Brown-eared woolly opossum:
- Pied tamarin with a size of 23.9 cm (0′ 10″)
- Podogymnura truei with a size of 31.3 cm (1′ 1″)
- Eastern spotted skunk with a size of 30 cm (1′ 0″)
- Columbian ground squirrel with a size of 29.6 cm (1′ 0″)
- Long-tailed giant rat with a size of 22.8 cm (0′ 9″)
- Collie’s squirrel with a size of 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Ethiopian dwarf mongoose with a size of 23 cm (0′ 10″)
- Florida naked-tailed rat with a size of 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Luzon broad-toothed rat with a size of 22.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Black flying fox with a size of 25.4 cm (0′ 10″)
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Brown-eared woolly opossum
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Brown-eared woolly opossum:
- Black rat with an average maximal age of 4.17 years
- Common planigale with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Wood mouse with an average maximal age of 4.33 years
- Northern grasshopper mouse with an average maximal age of 5 years
- Abbott’s duiker with an average maximal age of 5.42 years
- Great gerbil with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Lesser mole-rat with an average maximal age of 4.5 years
- Bank vole with an average maximal age of 4.83 years
- Striped field mouse with an average maximal age of 4 years
- Tiger quoll with an average maximal age of 5 years