the most known representatives of the American marsupials is the opossums. All bag-rats are named in the English usage after them. The often used name of "Possum" is misleading because it is used also for the Australian Kletterbeutler simultaneously. However, both groups are not nearer together relative.
Shape The actual opossums (type Didelphis) have the size of a house-cat approximately. its shape is rat-similar. The head with the pointed muzzle carries big, shining through dünnhäutige ears, that one can fold. Coarse Grannenhaare cover the dense sub-wool. they are very different in length and density and give a shaggy look to the animals. The fur-coloring is whitish-gray until gray-black.
The tail is 25-53 cm long and can serve as gripping-organ like with most bag-rats. it is hairy only at the root. The remaining part is bare and beschuppt. As far as at the sallow-white end, it is gloomily colored. The well developed bag opens to the front.
At the opossum, one first discovered a peculiarity in the building plan of the Beutler: they have 2 separate uteruses and 2 vaginas. Therefore, they got the generic term Didelphis (= Zweischeidige).
Habitat The opossums live in the most different habitats. One finds it forest-areas in the level like in the mountains, in steppes, and even in cities. Because they remained in its physique without special adaptations, they can live just as well on trees as ground-inhabitants like as a climber.
Nutrition They are not choosy also in the type of its nutrition. Insects and its larva, worms, are its main-food snails, frogs and mice, however they don't spurn also roots, berries and fruit. Near settlements, they search even garbages for enjoyable.
Enemy-behavior Opossums have many enemies. Driven into the narrowness, they turn to the aggressor and hold out its far torn pharynx wildly, that is fortified with pointed, powerful teeth, to fauchend it. If the opponent doesn't let himself act as a deterrent also through it, so they suddenly fall and stay as solidified. The eyes are closed, and the tongue hangs out from the opened mouth. its unpleasant smell often prevents that they are eaten. This "Totstellen" is such a conspicuous quality of the opossums that it turned into ("opossum-games") the expression in America as "playing possum."
Reproduction In order to be able to survive, opossums must multiply as in large numbers as possible. Was born twice up to 25 young in the year after a Tragzeit of only 12-13 days. Since they must look for its way to the protective bag for itself themselves, only the most powerful reach its goal. Approximately the half of them perishes. After approximately 10 weeks, they leave the bag for the first time. They are independent in the age of 3-4 months, stay with the mother even longer time, however, and one can around-carry from her on the back. Already with 6-8 months, they are sexually mature.
Continuance Almost everywhere, where the human being forced his way into the habitat of the Beutler, pets brought and abandoned rabbits, foxes and martens, the numbers of the native marsupials went back, and some died out. One explained this many times with it that they were not able to handle the higher mammals (placenta-animals) with its small brain and were ousted.
The opossums are one of the best counter-examples. they divide its spread-area with small-bears, martens and cats, who make similar demands for food and habitat. Snakes, dogs, foxes and the human being hunt it. Annually, 1-2 million opossum-furs come in the United States on the market. Nevertheless, its spread-area increases more and more. Also on some West Indian islands, on Madagascar and New Zealand, they proved its dynamic-ness as one abandoned it there.
Types, spread The opossums (type Didelphis) have the biggest spread-area of all marsupials with 3 types. One finds the North-opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in means and North America as far as to the big seas in the southern Canada. In Central America and sharing of South America, the Zentralamerikanische opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) lives while the South-opossum (Didelphis paraguayensis) lives in almost whole South America.
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