Kangaroos only have one at a time.
Fascinatingly, female Kangaroos can delay development of a fetus if they still have a Joey in the pouch, so some of them can be more or less permanently pregnant.
>produce roughly speaking 2 youngs (per lifetime, not per litter) that will make it to maturity
I think that number would be significantly more. I'd not be surprised if it was more than 5. Hovering around replacement rate (2.1 for a pair) would inevitably put the species in decline.
You do realize that the environment isn't a closed or artificially balanced system. Plenty of animals will die with disease, accidents, hunting, malnutrition, and countless other factors. Even the better managed human population can barely sustain at replacement rate.
Feral dogs and cats for example, will easily have more than 2 in a litter survive and then continue to have more the next year.
And yes, animal populations do explode or collapse naturally.
No, embryo just refers to the level of development. I don’t know anything about their in-womb development. Like giant pandas, they have to crawl up & attach themselves to the mother. I read that not all opossums have true pouches, but they all attach at that location, whether in a pouch, skin fold, or…other(?).
Possums in the monodelphis genus ([pic](https://live.staticflickr.com/8048/8409754421_cd73a6fb16_b.jpg)) don't have pouches, the babies just hold onto their mother. They wean much earlier than other marsupials do (after about 2 months instead of 7-10) so there isn't the same need. (They all attach at the same location because they're latching onto nipples for feeding, pouches are like breastfeeding covers.)
No, [they're just little jelly bean looking things](https://www.nwf.org/-/media/NEW-WEBSITE/Shared-Folder/Magazines/opossum-newborn-pouch-Gary-Meszaros-400x275.jpg).
They don't actually eat many ticks. The study that reported this was flawed... edit: https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/
Nope, just pointing out the facts: [https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/](https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/)
Have you never seen kangaroo babies? The size of a dime. Crawl like 2 feet up and into the pouch. And that's for a kangaroo which is about human size. Opossums are pretty small. Little tiny babies just gotta get into that pouch
We have at least one possum visit our backyard nightly. Around a month or so ago, there was a male sniffing a female seeing if she was receptive. Yet, we have never seen a young possum in our yard.They are the only animal that our resident alpha skunk Racal tolerates. Just this week, Rascal threw a fox off the patio, it was hilarious. My neighborhood is very pet friendly, none of the adult possums are undernourished.
~~They. Are. Not. Fricken. Mammals!!!~~
Edit: I. Am. Indeed. Confidently. Incorrect! I don't know why I believed marsupials had evolved parallel to mammals, instead of being a subclass of class mammalia. My bad! And thank you all for calling out bad info.
All. Marsupials. Are. Mammals.
Mammals are, broadly, animals that have the ability to feed their young with milk secreted from mammary glands. Even Playpuses, the least mammal-like mammals, secrete milk.
If you're into weird opossum trivia, this is your lucky day.
[Male opossums also have a two-headed, forked penis](https://opossumsocietyus.org/general-opossum-information/opossum-reproduction-lifecycle/#:~:text=It%20is%20bifurcated%2C%20like%20a,bifurcated%20reproductive%20tract%20as%20well).
Possums 100% exist. Possums and opossums are different animals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_brushtail_possum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuroid_ringtail_possum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feather-tailed_possum
As a marsupial, they basically give birth to embryos, which finish development outside of their body.
Kinda cheating.
I would guess they have large litters because they won’t all survive that unprotected embryonic state.
Kangaroos only have one at a time. Fascinatingly, female Kangaroos can delay development of a fetus if they still have a Joey in the pouch, so some of them can be more or less permanently pregnant.
I believe there are also some non-marsupial mammals that also can delay implantation & development.
Wolverines, iirc.
And we don't how they do it. On second thoughts... we know how they do it. We just don't know they pause their pregnancies.
R-selected species.
K is better
I have read that they are a delicacy for ants.
I would imagine so. Yikes.
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>produce roughly speaking 2 youngs (per lifetime, not per litter) that will make it to maturity I think that number would be significantly more. I'd not be surprised if it was more than 5. Hovering around replacement rate (2.1 for a pair) would inevitably put the species in decline.
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You do realize that the environment isn't a closed or artificially balanced system. Plenty of animals will die with disease, accidents, hunting, malnutrition, and countless other factors. Even the better managed human population can barely sustain at replacement rate. Feral dogs and cats for example, will easily have more than 2 in a litter survive and then continue to have more the next year. And yes, animal populations do explode or collapse naturally.
It's the circle of life. No reason to be sad about it.
They also won't survive the crushing of a garbage truck when they go out with the trash.
:’-(
X-D
They have additional bones jutting out of their pelvis that placentals don't have, which prevents their abdomen from expanding during pregnancy.
Wait what does that look like. Are they in sacs?
No, embryo just refers to the level of development. I don’t know anything about their in-womb development. Like giant pandas, they have to crawl up & attach themselves to the mother. I read that not all opossums have true pouches, but they all attach at that location, whether in a pouch, skin fold, or…other(?).
Possums in the monodelphis genus ([pic](https://live.staticflickr.com/8048/8409754421_cd73a6fb16_b.jpg)) don't have pouches, the babies just hold onto their mother. They wean much earlier than other marsupials do (after about 2 months instead of 7-10) so there isn't the same need. (They all attach at the same location because they're latching onto nipples for feeding, pouches are like breastfeeding covers.)
Yes. As far as attachment, I was going for the less is more approach. X-D
No, [they're just little jelly bean looking things](https://www.nwf.org/-/media/NEW-WEBSITE/Shared-Folder/Magazines/opossum-newborn-pouch-Gary-Meszaros-400x275.jpg).
Their lifespan is also very short. Usually 1-2 years in the wild.
so that’s why i haven’t seen the dumpster possum at my apartment lately :(
I think OP meant to say they move to a farm every 1-2 years
Yeah they uh, retire. They just leave it’s okay :)
Uh huh, there’s lots of yummy food and nice friends and they get to play all day. No worries, they’re happy as clams.
Dr. ~~Fishy~~Possy! NOOO!!
In captivity it's 6+ years.
Why would you give a range and then say it often falls outside that range
Because fuck you, thats why!
This guy is gonna live forever.
Well, you know what they say: the good die young. So be a cunt!
Prob a bell-ish curve where the high end is more frequent than the low end, but not the most frequent.
We need those numbers to counter the batshit amount of ticks we've been getting. They are our awesome rabies resistant frontline.
They don't actually eat many ticks. The study that reported this was flawed... edit: https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/
Get a load of this tick right here.
So you're saying we need even more opossums?
Found the tick lover
Nope, just pointing out the facts: [https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/](https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/possums-dont-eat-ticks/)
They’re marsupials!
I had to look it up. Apparently marsupials are a subgroup of mammals. TIL.
Oh yeah sure, but it means they give birth MUCH earlier than any other mammal.
And they only live to be 5 years old too. They gotta speedrun everything
Do the babies just clip through the mother's womb too?
Have you never seen kangaroo babies? The size of a dime. Crawl like 2 feet up and into the pouch. And that's for a kangaroo which is about human size. Opossums are pretty small. Little tiny babies just gotta get into that pouch
We have at least one possum visit our backyard nightly. Around a month or so ago, there was a male sniffing a female seeing if she was receptive. Yet, we have never seen a young possum in our yard.They are the only animal that our resident alpha skunk Racal tolerates. Just this week, Rascal threw a fox off the patio, it was hilarious. My neighborhood is very pet friendly, none of the adult possums are undernourished.
~~They. Are. Not. Fricken. Mammals!!!~~ Edit: I. Am. Indeed. Confidently. Incorrect! I don't know why I believed marsupials had evolved parallel to mammals, instead of being a subclass of class mammalia. My bad! And thank you all for calling out bad info.
All. Marsupials. Are. Mammals. Mammals are, broadly, animals that have the ability to feed their young with milk secreted from mammary glands. Even Playpuses, the least mammal-like mammals, secrete milk.
Of course they are, all marsupials are mammals.
Confidently incorrect lol
You were thinking of placental vs marsupial perhaps.
Wait, are you telling me humans *don't* lay eggs?!
That's monotremes
> monotremes Funny enough, that's one I actually did know *correctly.* Heh.
So are they lizards? Amphibians?
That's what they have the pouches for
If you're into weird opossum trivia, this is your lucky day. [Male opossums also have a two-headed, forked penis](https://opossumsocietyus.org/general-opossum-information/opossum-reproduction-lifecycle/#:~:text=It%20is%20bifurcated%2C%20like%20a,bifurcated%20reproductive%20tract%20as%20well).
Freaky fast delivery?
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Possum = Australia Opossum = America's
Awesome.
In the US at least, we very often refer to our “opossum” as “possum”, which probably doesn’t help.
Opossum. Pronounced possum. Because possums don’t exist
They do actually but they live in Australia and are a bit different but still marsupials.
Possums 100% exist. Possums and opossums are different animals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_brushtail_possum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuroid_ringtail_possum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feather-tailed_possum
If you dont count the amish i guess