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Opossums are usually solitary and nomadic, staying in one area as long as food and water are easily available. Some families will group together in ready-made burrows or even under houses. Though they will temporarily occupy abandoned burrows, they do not dig or put much effort into building their own.
Crepuscular, a classification of animals that are active primarily during twilight, making them similar to nocturnal animals. Diurnality, plant or animal behavior characterized by activity during the day and sleeping at night. Cathemeral, a classification of organisms with sporadic and random intervals of activity during the day or night.
They also have hairless ears and a long, flat nose. Opossums have 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal, [14] and opposable, clawless thumbs on their rear limbs. Opossums have 13 nipples, arranged in a circle of 12 with one in the middle. [15] [16] The dental formula of an opossum is 5.1.3.4 4.1.3.4. [17]
The average gestation period for the gray four-eyed opossum is 13 to 14 days, and each newborn weighs about 9 grams (0.32 oz). [5] They nurse in their mother's pouch until they are 68 to 75 days old. [5] Once weaned, they stay in their mother's nest for a further 8 to 15 days before their mother becomes aggressive and expels them. [5]
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]
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Some crepuscular animals may also be active by moonlight or during an overcast day. Matutinal animals are active only after dawn, and vespertine only before dusk. A number of factors affect the time of day an animal is active. Predators hunt when their prey is available, and prey try to avoid the times when their principal predators are at large.
The orange cat in this video is desperate to catch a bug hanging out on the ceiling of his home—so desperate, in fact, that he may be taking his very life in his hands.