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

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

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 relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

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 Chi ...

dry forest, a transitional zone between the Cerrado savannah and

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

in central and eastern

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and western

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

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

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and

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

. It is

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

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

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

, 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