Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Didelphimorphia > Didelphidae > Didelphis > Didelphis marsupialis

Didelphis marsupialis (Common Opossum)

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Wikipedia Abstract

The common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis), also called the southern or black-eared opossum or gambá, is a mammal species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pacific Ocean to the central coast of Peru), including the Lesser Antilles, where it is called manicou. It prefers the woods, but can also live in fields and cities. The common opossum is sometimes used for food in islands in the West Indies by humans.
View Wikipedia Record: Didelphis marsupialis

Infraspecies

Didelphis marsupialis caucae
Didelphis marsupialis etensis
Didelphis marsupialis marsupialis (Southern opossum)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
10
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
35
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 19.74
EDGE Score: 3.03
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  3.086 lbs (1.40 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  0.2 grams
Female Weight [1]  2.535 lbs (1.15 kg)
Male Weight [1]  3.638 lbs (1.65 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  43.5 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Herbivore
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Diet - Plants [3]  20 %
Diet - Scavenger [3]  30 %
Diet - Vertibrates [3]  30 %
Forages - Scansorial [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  5 months 28 days
Male Maturity [2]  8 months
Gestation [2]  12 days
Litter Size [2]  6
Litters / Year [2]  2
Maximum Longevity [2]  4 years
Nocturnal [4]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [1]  16 inches (40 cm)
Weaning [2]  3 months 4 days
Habitat Substrate [4]  Arboreal

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No
Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru No

Prey / Diet

Ficus cotinifolia[5]
Lasiurus borealis (red bat)[6]
Microtus pinetorum (woodland vole)[7]
Tadarida brasiliensis (Brazilian free-tailed bat)[8]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Full list (102)
Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Agkistrodon contortrix (Southern Copperhead)2
Bubo virginianus (Great Horned Owl)3
Falco sparverius (American Kestrel)2
Geococcyx californianus (Greater Roadrunner)2
Tyto alba (Barn Owl)2

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan 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
♦ 2de 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
♦ 3Hamish 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
♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 5"Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review", MIKE SHANAHAN, SAMSON SO, STEPHEN G. COMPTON and RICHARD CORLETT, Biol. Rev. (2001), 76, pp. 529–572
♦ 6Lasiurus borealis, Karl A. Shump Jr. and Ann U. Shump, Mammalian Species No. 183, pp. 1-6 (1982)
♦ 7Microtus pinetorum, Michael J. Smolen, Mammalian Species No. 147, pp. 1-7 (1981)
♦ 8Tadarida brasiliensis, Kenneth T. Wilkins, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 331, pp. 1-10 (1989)
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Eira barbara, Steven J. Presley, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 636, pp. 1–6 (2000)
♦ 11Galictis vittata, Eric Yensen and Teresa Tarifa, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 727, pp. 1–8 (2003)
♦ 12Movement patterns and food habits of four sympatric carnivore species in Belize, Central America, Michael John Konecny, Advances in Neotropical Mammalogy, 1984:243-264
♦ 13Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 14International Flea Database
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