Opossum Negative Footprint
$10.00
North American Opossum coats are a grayish brown, and their faces are white. They have long, hairless, prehensile tails, hairless ears and a long, flat nose. Opossums have 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal.
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- Additional information
Description
Opossum Negative Footprint measures 3.26 x 2.48 inches. American Opossum Negative Footprint cast is high quality and perfect for making cookies or fun educational art projects.
Opossum tracks are easily recognizable. Each foot has five toes and their opposable thumb makes for a unique print that resembles a human thumb. If an opossum is on your property you will likely see tracks along deck railings, downspouts, trees and other structures.
The Opossum has soft, delicate skin and small nails on their front paws. The opossum is not capable of doing a lot of digging. Opossums are sometimes seen feeding themselves with their paws.
Opossums have an opposable “thumb” on the rear foot. The useful anatomy allows the Opossum to grasp and hold branches in a manner similar to a human hand. They also use their feet to groom themselves. The tail usually leaves a drag line in the dirt between the tracks.
Opossums are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia endemic to the Americas.
The Virginia opossum is the only species found in the United States and Canada. It is often simply referred to as an opossum, and in North America it is commonly referred to as a possum.
Opossums are small to medium-sized marsupials that grow to the size of a house cat. They tend to be semi-arboreal omnivores. Most members of this order have long snouts, a narrow braincase, and a prominent sagittal crest.
They have a plantigrade stance (feet flat on the ground) and the hind feet have an opposable digit with no claw. Some opossums have prehensile tails.
The Opossums fur consists of awn hair only; many females have a pouch. The tail and parts of the feet bear scutes. The stomach is simple, with a small cecum.
The female opossum has a reproductive system that includes a bifurcated vagina and a divided uterus; many have a marsupium, the pouch. The average estrous cycle of the opossum is about 28 days.
Opossums do possess a placenta, but it is short-lived, simple in structure, and, unlike that of placental mammals, not fully functional. 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.
They give birth to litters of up to 20 young. Once born, the offspring must find their way into the marsupium, if present, to hold on to and nurse from a teat. Baby opossums are called joeys.
Female opossums often give birth to very large numbers of young, most of which fail to attach to a teat, although as many as thirteen young can attach.
The young are weaned between 70 and 125 days, when they detach from the teat and leave the pouch.
The opossum lifespan is unusually short for a mammal of its size, usually only one to two years in the wild and as long as four or more years in captivity.
North American Opossum Facts:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Didelphimorphia
Family: Didelphidae
Genus: Didelphis
Species: D. virginiana
Binomial name: Didelphis virginiana
Conservation status: Least concern
Additional information
Weight | 1 lbs |
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Dimensions | 3.26 × 2.48 in |
National Opossum Day - October 17th | Every year National Opossum Day is celebrated on October 17th. |