CuriositiesThe origin of the animal’s name in Portuguese, gambá, comes from the tupi-guarani language which means empty breast, which refers to the possum’s pouch.
The big eared opossums are marsupials! After a short period of gestation, they give birth to tiny possums who then crawl into their mother’s pouch, attach to the nipple, and feed for 100 days. Opossums are immune to snake poison, which allows them to feed on snakes such as the jararaca and coral snakes. In an experiment by SOERENSEN, B. & et ali - UNIMAR, it was found that the fatal dosage of snake poison for an opossum is 660mg, which is 4,000 times more than the poison needed to kill 400kg cow. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ux9UQkHoHT0J:www.webanimal.com.br/cao/index2.asp%3Fmenu%3Dcuriosidade_gamba.htm+didelphis+aurita+curiosidades&cd=2&hl=pt-BR&ct=clnk&gl=br |