Can you spot the babies?
I was working in the yard this morning when this rather large, lumbering opossum walked out of the woods and started across our lawn. I grabbed the camera and got this shot. It's a female with young in her marsupium. View large to see at least two little tails!!
From Wikipedia:
Opossums do possess a placenta,[19] but it is short-lived, simple in structure, and, unlike that of placental mammals, is not fully functional.[20] The young are therefore born at a very early stage, although the gestation period is similar to many other small marsupials, at only 12 to 14 days.[21] Once born, the offspring must find their way into the marsupium to hold on to and nurse from a teat. Baby opossums, like their Australian cousins, are called joeys.[22] 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,[23] and therefore survive, depending on species. 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 4+ years in captivity.
Can you spot the babies?
I was working in the yard this morning when this rather large, lumbering opossum walked out of the woods and started across our lawn. I grabbed the camera and got this shot. It's a female with young in her marsupium. View large to see at least two little tails!!
From Wikipedia:
Opossums do possess a placenta,[19] but it is short-lived, simple in structure, and, unlike that of placental mammals, is not fully functional.[20] The young are therefore born at a very early stage, although the gestation period is similar to many other small marsupials, at only 12 to 14 days.[21] Once born, the offspring must find their way into the marsupium to hold on to and nurse from a teat. Baby opossums, like their Australian cousins, are called joeys.[22] 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,[23] and therefore survive, depending on species. 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 4+ years in captivity.