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The Opossum |
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Opossums are creatures that look like rats. The time when an opossum starts
to breed is on mostly the month of December it can continue through the
month of October. Like all marsupials the female opossums have a well developed
pouch. These female opossums can have an average of 7 kids once or twice
a year (litter of 17 kids has been reported). At birth these animals are
hairless and embryonic looking and they weigh about 0.1 grams because their
period of gestation is 12-13 days and because they are born like in a very
early stage in their life they stay in their mother's pouch until they
are grown up to be able to be holding on their mother's pouch while they
are traveling or tying to go get food to eat.
There are 13 teats all together but some won't function as well as the others so there is a very big chance of the babies dying. Did you know that young opossums have to make a long and a difficult journey at birth, they have to move from the birth canal and into the mother's pouch and then latch onto a teat. The mother helps the baby by showing how to go to the pouch by licking the hair from the birth canal to the pouch. Opossums are found in North America, Central America, and in Mexico but mostly in the south. They could also be found on the western coast of United States of America. Their population seems to be increasing northwards. Opossums usually live for around 18 months but however someone captured an opossum that was 3 years old. They are not able to live long because one of the reason is that they have many predators and some usually get killed by cars. Opossums eat almost anything they eat fruits, vegetables, grass, leftovers, and even things in the garbage etc. I got my information on the following sites:
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