Unprecedented habitat use by an arboreal Neotropical marsupial (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) in the Cerrado.

The brown-eared woolly opossum (Caluromys lanatus) is an elusive frugivorous Neotropical canopy specialist marsupial considered primarily arboreal, but here we report the first records of individuals from this species captured on the ground in the Cerrado. We hypothesize two main reasons to explain this behavior: first related to canopy openness, which would force the animals to the ground to keep moving across the landscape; and the second related with search for food on the ground during periods of food scarcity due to increased canopy gaps. Our findings can have important implications for the species conservation and understanding forest ecological dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]