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As nocturnal animals, they favor dark, secure areas. These areas may be below ground or above. [40] [41] Juvenile Virginia opossum hissing defensively. When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. This physiological response is involuntary (like fainting), rather than a ...
The species are commonly known as possums, opossums, [3] gliders, and cuscus. The common name "(o)possum" for various Phalangeriformes species derives from the creatures' resemblance to the opossums of the Americas (the term comes from Powhatan language aposoum "white animal", from Proto-Algonquian * wa·p-aʔɬemwa "white dog"). [ 4 ]
The order Didelphimorphia consists of one family, Didelphidae, which is divided into the subfamilies Caluromyinae, Glironiinae, Hyladelphinae, and Didelphinae.Caluromyinae contains 4 species in 2 genera, Glironiinae and Hyladelphinae each contain a single species, and Didelphinae contains 87 species in 14 genera, as well as the extinct red-bellied gracile opossum, which was last seen in 1962.
The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula, from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus Phalangista [4]) is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Australia and invasive in New Zealand, and the second-largest of the possums.
Genus Pseudocheirus (ringtail possums): two species; Genus Pseudochirulus (ringtail possums): eight species; Subfamily Pseudochiropsinae. Genus Pseudochirops (ringtail possums): five species; Family Tarsipedidae. Genus Tarsipes (honey possum): one species; Superfamily Phalangeroidea. Family Burramyidae. Genus Burramys (mountain pygmy possum ...
The Virginia opossum is the original animal named "opossum", a word which comes from Algonquian wapathemwa, meaning "white animal". Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently just called a "possum". [8] The term is applied more generally to any of the other marsupials of the families Didelphidae and Caenolestidae.
Common ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus), also common in Australian urban areas, absent from New Zealand; Phalangeridae (possums and cuscuses), a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea containing most of the species referred to as "possums" in Australia
The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arboreal, and they inhabit a wide range of forest habitats from alpine woodland to eucalypt forest and tropical ...