The Central American woolly opossum is well adapted for clambering through the treetops of its rainforest habitat. The prominent, forward-directed eyes provide the opossum with binocular vision, which enables excellent hand-eye coordination and depth perception – important in navigating through the treetops .
The Postal Administration of Belize has issued the stamp set of WWF series features the protected species the Central American woolly opossum or Caluromys derbianus on November 01, 2004. The another issued is one the First Day Cover that was considered the local WWF cover. The cover have a special image of the Central American woolly opossum on the left-side of cover and a specific post mark depicted a head of this species.
The Central American woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus) is the largest of the three woolly opossum species and has a long, slender body, and the woolly coat, for which it is named, exhibits considerable variation, ranging from pale grey to bright reddish-brown . The limbs and feet are lighter and the under-parts are buff-white to golden-tawny . The long tail is only furred for the upper half, with the lower half being naked. Its has a rather peculiar face, with a dark stripe extending from the top of the head down to the fleshy portion of the nose, and large, pale pink ears.
The long prehensile tail gives the opossum both balance and grip , and the claws on the forepaws and the opposable thumb allow the opossum to grasp trees and manipulate objects such as food items . With its acute vision and nimble fingers, this amazing opossum can even catch flying moths with its forepaws while hanging upside down from a branch by its tail.
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