What is the maximal age a Black-shouldered opossum reaches?
An adult Black-shouldered opossum (Caluromysiops irrupta) usually gets as old as 7.83 years.
When born, they weight 16 grams (0.04 lbs) and measure 1 cm (0′ 1″). As a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Caluromysiops), their offspring is 2 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 23.4 cm (0′ 10″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
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
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Didelphidae):
- Common opossum becoming 2.67 years old
- Sepia short-tailed opossum bringing the scale to 36 grams
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum bringing the scale to 34 grams
- Common fat-tailed mouse opossum bringing the scale to 28 grams
- Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum with 10 babies per pregnancy
- Aceramarca gracile opossum bringing the scale to 20 grams
- Emilia’s gracile opossum bringing the scale to 7 grams
- Gray short-tailed opossum becoming 6 years old
- Woolly mouse opossum with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Grayish mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
Animals that reach the same age as Black-shouldered opossum
With an average age of 7.83 years, Black-shouldered opossum are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Mongolian gazelle usually reaching 7 years
- Indian gerbil usually reaching 7 years
- Southern tamandua usually reaching 9 years
- Kowari usually reaching 7 years
- Pacarana usually reaching 9.33 years
- Black-tailed prairie dog usually reaching 8.5 years
- Doria’s tree-kangaroo usually reaching 8 years
- Edible dormouse usually reaching 9 years
- Whiskered bat usually reaching 9.25 years
- Barbary ground squirrel usually reaching 9 years
Animals with the same number of babies Black-shouldered opossum
The same number of babies at once (2) are born by:
- Ruwenzori sun squirrel
- Amami rabbit
- Armored rat
- Thick-tailed pygmy jerboa
- Greater mole-rat
- Selous’s mongoose
- Gray-bellied tree mouse
- Brush-tailed rabbit rat
- Chiruromys lamia
- Oecomys bicolor
Weighting as much as Black-shouldered opossum
A fully grown Black-shouldered opossum reaches around 258 grams (0.57 lbs). So do these animals:
- Argentine tuco-tuco with 221 grams
- Tawny tuco-tuco with 280 grams
- Madagascan fruit bat with 296 grams
- Salta tuco-tuco with 230 grams
- White-spined Atlantic spiny rat with 284 grams
- White-bellied nesomys with 214 grams
- Pallid Atlantic tree-rat with 215 grams
- Admiralty flying fox with 305 grams
- Siberian zokor with 225 grams
- Dusky bushbaby with 213 grams
Animals as big as a Black-shouldered opossum
Those animals grow as big as a Black-shouldered opossum:
- Rock squirrel with 27.3 cm (0′ 11″)
- Gray four-eyed opossum with 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Green bush squirrel with 19.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Solomons flying fox with 25.6 cm (0′ 11″)
- Eastern woodrat with 21.2 cm (0′ 9″)
- Russian desman with 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Silvery lutung with 25.8 cm (0′ 11″)
- Michoacan pocket gopher with 22.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Japen rat with 21.6 cm (0′ 9″)
- Least weasel with 18.9 cm (0′ 8″)