The spectacled slender opossum (''Marmosops ocellatus''), also known as little spotted slender opossum is a species in the

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

genus ''

Marmosops ''Marmosops'' is a genus of Neotropical opossums of the family Didelphidae. The genus was originally treated as a subgenus from the genus ''Marmosa'' rather than having their own classification. This was changed in 1989 by Gardner and Crieghton ...

'' from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Description

''Marmosops ocellatus'' has sandy grayish-brown dorsal fur and self-cream that lack distinct lateral zones of gray-based hairs. The tail is distinctly bicolored (dark above, pale below) and particolored (paler distally than proximally), such that the distal one-third or more of the organ is completely pale in most specimens. Individuals can range from 20g-40g in weight.

Ecology and population

The spectacled slender opossum inhabits

Chiquitania Chiquitania ("Chiquitos" or "Gran Chiquitania") is a region of tropical savannas in the Santa Cruz Department in eastern Bolivia. Geography "Chiquitos" is the colonial name for what is now essentially five of the six provinces that make up the ...

dry forest, a transitional zone between the Cerrado savannah and

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

in central and eastern

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and western

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It is found in mature, disturbed, and secondary forests. This species feeds on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s and

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

. It is

nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...

and can climb very well. Currently ''Marmosops ocellatus'' is listed as "least concern" by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, because of its wide distribution, adaptation to human interference and occurrence in a number of protected areas.

References

Opossums Marsupials of Brazil Marsupials of Bolivia Taxa named by George Henry Hamilton Tate Mammals described in 1931 {{marsupial-stub