Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Southern opossum FAMILY - Didelphidae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Didelphis marsupialis tabascensis REFERENCES - 3 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Common: high density, likely to be seen in many places 4 - Comments on Status 4* hunted for meat only where other game is scarce District Reference Belize 2 Cayo 2 Corozal 2 Orange Walk 2 Stann Creek 2 Toledo 2 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Private land, see comments Collected as voucher November 11 Community Baboon Sanctuary 10 Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve Permanent 9 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary 8 Bladen Nature Reserve 7 Columbia River Forest Reserve 6 Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary 5 Government land Collected as voucher November 11 Private land, see comments Collected as voucher May 11 Private land, see comments Collected as voucher October 11 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 11 16 00' to 16 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 11 17 00' to 17 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 11 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 10 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 9 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 8 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 7 16 15' to 16 30'; 89 00' to 89 15' 6 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 5 17 00' to 17 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 11 16 00' to 16 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 11 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 11 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Subtropical moist 11 Subtropical wet 11 Subtropical moist 11 General Distribution Comments 11* ROM Georgeville; Punta Gorda; Central Farm 2* specimen from Central Farm 7* D. sp. several sightings References 1 McCarthy, T. J. 1993. Checklist: Mammals of Belize. BAS Newsletter 25 (2-3). 2 Hall, E. R. 1981. Mammals of North America. Second ed. John Wiley & Sons. New York. 1:3-4 3 Wilson, D. E., D. M. Reeder. 1993. Mammal Species of the World, a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Second ed. Smithsonian Inst. p.16-17 4 Emmons, L. H. 1990. Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, a field guide. University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London. p.14 5 Rabinowitz, A.; B. G. Nottingham, Jr. 1989. Mammal species richness and relative abundance of small mammals in a subtropical wet forest of Central America. Mammalia V. 53, No. 2, pp.217-226 6 Parker, T. A. III, B. K. Holst, L. H. Emmons, J. R. Meyer. 1993. A Biological Assessment of the Columbia River Forest Reserve, Toledo District, Belize. pp.23-25, p. 80 7 Brokaw, N. L. V., T. L. Lloyd-Evans. 1987. The Bladen Branch Wilderness. p. 21 8 Mackler, R., O. Salas. 1994. Management Plan Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Belize. Unpub. draft report for BAS. p.15 9 Clark, W. 1993. A contribution to the mammals of the Mountain Pine Ridge; Hidden Valley Inn, Cayo District, Belize, Central America. Unpub. report for WCS. pp.7-8 10 O'Connell, S. 1987. in Horwich, R. H. and J. Lyon. The Community Baboon Sanctuary, A Guide Book. Orangu-tan Press, Gays Mills, WI. pp. 113. 11 ROM. 1995. Collections data from mammal department, Royal Ontario Museum.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98