Chilean Shrew Opossum

• It stores fat in its tail, which thickens noticeably before winter as an energy reserve: hence its epithet raphanurus, meaning radish tail.
• It belongs to a marsupial lineage that already existed when South America was an isolated continent, and only seven related species survive in the whole world.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat & environment

Damp understorey and leaf litter of the Valdivian temperate forest of Chile and Argentina

Litter / clutch size

4

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyncholestes_raphanurus

Best time: All year in the temperate rainforests of Chile and the island of Chiloé, at night, on the damp ground beneath fallen logs.