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The Virginia opossum is most active during the spring and summer. [27] It does not hibernate but reduces its activity during the winter. [ 26 ] [ 41 ] It may not leave its den for several days if the temperature drops below −7 to −4 °C (19 to 25 °F). [ 27 ]
Opossums do possess a placenta, [31] but it is short-lived, simple in structure, and, unlike that of placental mammals, not fully functional. [32] The young are therefore born at a very early stage, although the gestation period is similar to that of many other small marsupials, at only 12 to 14 days. [ 33 ]
Aestivation (Latin: aestas (summer); also spelled estivation in American English) is a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and a lowered metabolic rate, that is entered in response to high temperatures and arid conditions. [ 1 ]
The common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis), also called the southern or black-eared opossum [2] or gambá, and sometimes called a possum, is a marsupial species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pacific Ocean to the central coast of Peru), including Trinidad and Tobago and the Windwards in the Caribbean, [2] where it is called manicou. [3]
The official name for this animal is “opossum” but they are generally called possums, colloquially, throughout America, where they serve as the country’s only native marsupial.
Another factor is due to the shortage of food stocks during winter as the insects are being driven away and as the result, bat hibernate in pregnant condition. [24] In pinnipeds, the purpose of delayed implantation is in order to increase survival chance of the young animals as the mother ensure that the neonates are born at an optimal season. [25]
It has well-developed, blackish eye rings that extend toward the nose (similar to the buff-bellied, elegant and Tate's fat-tailed mouse opossums but unlike the common, dwarf, Karimi's and Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossums). The head-and-body length of the white-bellied fat-tailed mouse opossum is 7.3 to 10.5 centimetres (2.9 to 4.1 in); the ...
Needing more sleep during the winter may also be due to what’s known as “social jet lag,” experts said, meaning that the fun, late nights you had all summer may be why you’re having ...