Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Didelphimorphia > Didelphidae > Chironectes > Chironectes minimus

Chironectes minimus (Water Opossum)

Synonyms: Lutra minima
Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The water opossum (Chironectes minimus), also locally known as the yapok /ˈjæpɒk/, is a marsupial of the family Didelphidae. It is the only living member of its genus, Chironectes. This semiaquatic creature is found in and near the freshwater streams and lakes in Mexico, Central and South America to Argentina, and is the most aquatic living marsupial (the lutrine opossum also has aquatic habits). It is also the only living marsupial in which both sexes have a pouch. The thylacine, commonly referred to as the Tasmanian tiger, also exhibited this trait, but is now believed to be extinct.
View Wikipedia Record: Chironectes minimus

Infraspecies

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
11
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
37
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 22.44
EDGE Score: 3.15

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.543 lbs (700 g)
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fish [2]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  50 %
Diet - Plants [2]  20 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  10 months 4 days
Litter Size [1]  4
Litters / Year [3]  1
Maximum Longevity [1]  3 years
Nocturnal [2]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [3]  12 inches (30 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
4International Flea Database
5Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0