This small opossum occurs in mountain forests of northern Venezuela and Colombia. Colombian specimens originally described as a separate species were caught at the bases of coffee trees.
Its back is reddish brown and its underside is pale. It has a long tail, and coat color varies among individuals.
On 10 March 1943, two males were collected at Las Marimondas, a former coffee plantation on the eastern slope of Colombia’s Serranía de Perijá, at 1,450 m. Traps were set at the bases of coffee trees on steep slopes, beneath taller shade trees and trailing vines. These specimens were described as Gracilinanus perijae in 1992, a name now treated as a synonym of this species.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.