What is the maximal age a Gray short-tailed opossum reaches?
An adult Gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica) usually gets as old as 6 years.
Gray short-tailed opossums are around 14 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 16.28 kg (35.88 lbs) and measure 0.9 cm (0′ 1″). As a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Monodelphis), a Gray short-tailed opossum caries out around 7 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 4 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 14.8 cm (0′ 6″).
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 gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica) is a small South American member of the family Didelphidae. Unlike most other marsupials, the gray short-tailed opossum does not have a true pouch. The scientific name Monodelphis is derived from Greek and means “single womb” (referring to the lack of a pouch) and the Latin word domestica which means “domestic” (chosen because of the species’ habit of entering human dwellings). It was the first marsupial to have its genome sequenced. The gray short-tailed opossum is used as a research model in science, and is also frequently found in the exotic pet trade. It is also known as the Brazilian opossum, rainforest opossum and in a research setting the laboratory opossum.
Animals of the same family as a Gray short-tailed opossum
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Didelphidae):
- Water opossum becoming 3 years old
- Dwarf fat-tailed mouse opossum bringing the scale to 20 grams
- Pinheiro’s slender opossum getting as big as 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Bishop’s slender opossum getting as big as 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mexican mouse opossum becoming 7 years old
- Northern three-striped opossum bringing the scale to 19 grams
- Pygmy short-tailed opossum bringing the scale to 11 grams
- Derby’s woolly opossum becoming 5 years old
- McIlhenny’s four-eyed opossum becoming 2.25 years old
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum bringing the scale to 34 grams
Animals that reach the same age as Gray short-tailed opossum
With an average age of 6 years, Gray short-tailed opossum are in good companionship of the following animals:
- African striped weasel usually reaching 5.17 years
- American hog-nosed skunk usually reaching 7 years
- Sundevall’s jird usually reaching 5.58 years
- Common degu usually reaching 7.08 years
- Woylie usually reaching 6.5 years
- Bunny rat usually reaching 5.5 years
- Bare-tailed woolly opossum usually reaching 6.33 years
- Forest giant squirrel usually reaching 5.08 years
- Paucident planigale usually reaching 5 years
- Spinifex hopping mouse usually reaching 5.17 years
Animals with the same number of babies Gray short-tailed opossum
The same number of babies at once (7) are born by:
- Southern multimammate mouse
- Yellow steppe lemming
- Pallas’s pika
- Linnaeus’s mouse opossum
- Ooldea dunnart
- Piute ground squirrel
- Lutrine opossum
- Washington ground squirrel
- Red-cheeked ground squirrel
- Red-tailed phascogale
Weighting as much as Gray short-tailed opossum
A fully grown Gray short-tailed opossum reaches around 94 grams (0.21 lbs). So do these animals:
- Rosalinda’s Oldfield mouse with 77 grams
- Southern three-striped opossum with 112 grams
- Texas kangaroo rat with 106 grams
- Cauca climbing mouse with 89 grams
- Bocage’s mole-rat with 93 grams
- Eastern mole with 87 grams
- Beady-eyed mouse with 77 grams
- Major’s tufted-tailed rat with 100 grams
- Arnhem Land rock rat with 94 grams
- Robert’s hocicudo with 83 grams
Animals as big as a Gray short-tailed opossum
Those animals grow as big as a Gray short-tailed opossum:
- Banner-tailed kangaroo rat with 14.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Jentink’s flying squirrel with 13.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Mindoro climbing rat with 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Greater fairy armadillo with 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Hairy-eared dwarf lemur with 13.3 cm (0′ 6″)
- Dusky bushbaby with 16 cm (0′ 7″)
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat with 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Thomas’s mosaic-tailed rat with 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Long-tailed mouse with 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Mindoro striped rat with 17.3 cm (0′ 7″)