Mammals · Paucituberculata · Caenolestidae

Silky Shrew Opossum

Caenolestes fuliginosus

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The silky shrew opossum is a small marsupial of the northern Andes, found in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and northern Peru. Like the long-nosed shrew opossum, it belongs to the order Paucituberculata, a very ancient South American lineage. At night it works through damp leaf litter and tunnels under the moss hunting insects, spiders and worms, which it locates with its whiskers and its sense of smell. It lives across a very wide altitudinal range, from cloud forest up to open páramo.

Weight

25 g – 40 g

Size

9 cm – 13 cm

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

RainforestMountainOmnivore Nocturnal Solitary Rainforest Mountain Mammal

4countries1same family

Fun facts

The female has no pouch: the young grip the teats directly and hang from her belly, a condition common among many American marsupials.
Its lower incisors are long and project almost horizontally forwards, working as forceps with which it spears invertebrates.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
Habitat & environment: Andean cloud forest, páramo and high-altitude scrub, between 1,600 and 4,000 metres
Litter / clutch size: 4

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