Surprise in the Dog Food Sack - Three Young Opossums

We found three small possums in the dog food sack this morning. Here in Mexico they're called zarigüeyas (sorry-WAY-us) or more commonly tlacuaches (tlah-CWAH-chase).
There's an early account of zarigüeyas from Spanish colonial times which described them as “a monstrous beast with a snout like a fox, a tail like a marmoset, ears like a bat, hands like a man, and feet like an ape, bearing her whelps about with her in an outward belly much like a large bag or purse.”
The opossum (tlacuache) has spread more than 800 kilometers further north than its distribution at the time that odd observation was written. That put them well into the U.S. The success of the species has been partly due to a pacific co-existence with humans, eating garden refuse and rubbish, but not damaging crops. In addition, it has a remarkable talent for finding food and remembering exactly where it was found. In laboratory tests opossums out-remember cats, chicks, dogs, goats, pigs, turtles and even rats.
In southern Mexico there are several other tlacuaches, or marsupials, including the wooly opossum, a little-studied tree dweller; the tlacuache cuatro ojos, or 4-eyed opossum, which has no pouch for its young; and the big water opossum, first recognized about 50 years ago, similar in size to the common opossum but with webbed feet.
The common opossum, full-grown, is the size of a house cat, with a long, pointed nose, round ears, short legs, and is predominantly greyish brown in color.. Females have a pouch for their young. Opossums look bigger than they actually are because of their long hair. They have the reputation of being slow and lazy, but inquisitive. Their hands and feet are perfectly adapted for tree-climbing. Each foot has 5 toes, and their hands feature opposable thumbs. In climbing, they make frequent use of their prehensile tail. One of their characteristic behaviors is to “play possum”, feigning death when threatened.
Tlacuaches are nocturnal and are often seen running across the road or standing indecisive on the verge, panting when caught in a vehicle’s headlights. They are also often heard scrambling over roofs in search of potential food. They are omnivorous. A large part of their diet is insects and other invertebrates, but they also eat the eggs of chickens and wild birds, fruits and berries and pet food. Before complaining about your neighbor’s cat and its nocturnal excursions across your roof tiles, consider the possibility that it might not be a cat at all, but a tlacuache, or opossum.
Tlacuaches make their homes in hollow trees, or beneath constructions, sometimes using the empty burrows of rabbits or armadillos. They transport material for their nests with their tails rather than their feet. They are not a very social animal, and are rarely seen together except during the mating season.
Despite their food-finding abilities, opossums are among the shortest-lived mammals in the world for their size. A Venezuelan study found that only 1.2 % lived to a third reproductive season and none to a fourth. Any tlachuache that lives beyond its first reproductive year shows signs of advanced aging, such as cataracts, weight loss, and a loss of motor coordination.
Baby tlacuaches are tiny, less than one centimeter long and weighing only a fifth of a gram at birth, 1/10,000th of the body weight of their mother. They are born deaf and blind and virtually devoid of hind legs, but nonetheless have to find the marsupial pouch, five centimeters away, using their front feet in a kind of swimming motion known to scientists as the Australian crawl. If successful, they attach to one of their mother’s teats for about 2 months. Of the average litter of twenty, less than half survive early childhood.
Interesting survivors of ancient times that they are, tlacuaches have limited economic significance. If no alternative source of meat is available, rural campesinos will sometimes eat them, but more often they make use of their skin or the fat from their tail, considered since Aztec times to have some medicinal value.
The only opossum species occurring north of Mexico is the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), which ranges from lower eastern Canada and Puget Sound southward to Costa Rica; other members of that genus are found in South America. The Virginia opossum may grow to 100 cm (40 inches) in length (including the tail) and is about the size of a house cat. Its coarse coat varies from grayish white (in northern regions) to nearly black (in warm regions). It has a pointy white face, beady black eyes, round black ears, and a stout body. The opossum’s nearly hairless, scaly, prehensile tail is about half the animal’s total length. There are five sharp-clawed toes on each front foot. The innermost toe on each hind foot is clawless and opposable and can be used for grasping branches. The animal has 50 teeth.

[@alisondblake]

Thank you for the enlightenment. So helpful. And sweet :)

[@novajtv]

They all probably didn't survive 😢 possum moms dont wait around and those little dudes are too young to fend for themselves

[@QuackZack]

Should've kept them and gave them to a rehab center if possible. Those are lone babies and likely died :-( They also make a cute pet but are very short lived.

[@buildinginmexico]

Haha. Ain't no rehab centers in the mountains of Central Mexico.

[@SUROBLEDEKchannel]

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