The big-eared opossum (''Didelphis aurita'') also known as a saruê is an opossum

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 sout ...

. It is found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

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 ...

and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. This species, which was considered a population of the

common opossum The common opossum (''Didelphis marsupialis''), also called the southern or black-eared opossum or gambá, and sometimes called a possum, is a marsupial species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Pac ...

(''D. marsupialis'') for some time, was originally described as ''D. azarae'' by Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1824, but this name was incorrectly given to the white-eared opossum (''D. albiventris'') for over 160 years. As such, the name ''azarae'' has been abandoned. Due to carrying an off-spring, female Big-eared opossums tend to stay in smaller areas and reduce their movements.

References

External links

facts and pictures at Animal Diversity Web
Diogo Loretto, & Marcus Vinícius Vieira. (2005). The Effects of Reproductive and Climatic Seasons on Movements in the Black-Eared Opossum (Didelphis aurita Wied-Neuwied, 1826). Journal of Mammalogy, 86(2), 287–293. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4094347 Opossums Marsupials of South America Mammals of Brazil Mammals of Argentina Mammals of Paraguay Mammals described in 1826 {{marsupial-stub