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Water Opossum — printable fact sheet
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Water Opossum
Chironectes minimus
The water opossum or yapok (Chironectes minimus) is the only truly semiaquatic marsupial in the world, and it lives along clear forest streams from southern Mexico to Argentina. Its adaptations are exactly the ones you would design. The hind feet are fully webbed and do the prop…
Did you know?
- The Yapok is the only marsupial in the world with both webbed feet and a waterproof pouch, specially adapted for an aquatic lifestyle.
- The female's pouch seals watertight with a ring of muscle and an oily secretion, so she can dive with her young inside and they stay dry. Males have a pouch too, and they use it to pack away the scrotum while swimming. It hunts with its eyes shut, feeling for crayfish and fish with long, unwebbed, highly sensitive fingers while its webbed hind feet do the swimming. It is the only marsupial in the world that has genuinely taken to the water.
What I learned
Draw the water opossum
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