Monday, March 9, 2009

What runs around the temple late at night or very early in the morning? What can climb the temple wall and is usually seen around the bushes or the bouganvilla?
It has a long, hairless tail and a pointy snout, is about as big as a large cat and is gray in color.
Sis. Smith excitedly exclaimed, "It's a rat!" Bro. Smith says he has seen two adults together.
The gardeners say it is called a "zorro,"or a "zarigüeya," and carries its babies under its tummy.

Internet sites gave information about this very interesting creature. Some of these facts we had already observed and others were new to us.
It is a marsupial (the name "marsupial" derives from the Greek word for "bag" or "pouch) which represents one of the oldest families in the animal kingdom. Practically a living fossil, this marsupial carries its young in a pouch. It is generally about the size of a plump house cat with a long, naked prehensile tail, a white face with pointed snout. Opossum feet are shaped somewhat like human hands with an opposable thumb on the back feet. The coarse, grizzled fur is generally grayish in color but can vary from white to brown to black. Opossums may weigh as much as 14 pounds. The mouth contains 50 teeth more than are found in any other North American mammal.
When threatened, the opossum may bare its teeth, growl, hiss, bite, screech, and exude a smelly, greenish fluid from its anal glands. If these defenses are not successful, the opossum may play dead.
From Nahuatl tlacuatzin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_words_of_Indigenous_American_Indian_origin;
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/swwd/espanol_OPOSSUMS.htm; http://www.zoowebplus.com/animales/?animal=zarigueya

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