![]() When they are too large to remain in the pouch, they climb onto their mother’s back, where they are carried until they are about 8 inches long and several months old.įor many years, naturalists wondered about the mysteries of opossum birth. The babies continue to nurse and grow in the pouch for about 2.5 months. (Photo: Richard George)Īt birth, each possum baby weighs about 0.13 grams (for reference, a small paper clip weighs about one gram). In addition, a female places her nose inside her pouch after the babies crawl inside.Īn adult opossum is about 2.5 feet long, including its footlong tail. This idea probably originated because the babies are so small that no one ever noticed the birth. It used to be thought that possums were born from the mother’s nose. The newborns are shaped like a lima bean but are the size of a grain of rice they must wriggle from under the mother’s tail, onto her belly and into her pouch to latch onto one of 13 nipples. Baby opossums are born after a gestation of only 12 days. The male, likewise, has a retractable forked penis. Didelphis means “two wombs.” The female opossum has a forked reproductive tract with two vaginas and two uteri. The name ( Didelphis virginiana) gives clues to the possum’s anatomy. Under her belly shee hath a bagge, wherein she lodgeth, carrieth, and suckleth her young.” John Smith wrote in “The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles” that “An Opassom hath a head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignesse of a Cat. Europeans encountered the opossum for the first time when settling in Virginia. These creatures have been around for more than 20 million years. An opossum that has lived through a New England winter is likely to have a frostbitten tail, nose or ears.īecause opossum ears, tails and feet are hairless, they easily get frostbitten in the snow. Unlike some animals, opossums do not hibernate to survive winters instead, they store up some fat but spend most winter nights like they spend most summer nights – looking for food. Their coats are thin, and their ears, tails and feet are almost hairless. southeast, these nocturnal critters are not especially well-suited for our colder New England climate. Native to South America and common in the U.S. I replied, “Where I’m from, we call those critters ’possums.”Īlthough Virginia opossums ( Didelphis virginiana), or possums as they are commonly called, look like giant rats with their long hairless tails and whiskery snouts, they are actually North America’s only marsupial. I replied, “Was it white, by any chance?” (Photo: Cody Pope via Wikimedia)Ī coworker once said to me, “I saw the biggest rat ever last night. Possums age rapidly and have a lifespan that is short for a mammal of its size – one to two years is typical.
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