It is nocturnal (active mainly at night) and solitary; there is hardly any social interaction except between mother and juveniles and in mating pairs.

It is called mucura-xixica in Portuguese, zarigüeya lanuda parda in Spanish, and wakaro in the Kwaza language of Rondônia, Brazil.

[3] The bare-tailed woolly opossum is one of the three members of Caluromys, and is placed in the family Didelphidae in the marsupial order Didelphimorphia.

[2][4] A 1955 revision of marsupial phylogeny grouped Caluromys, Caluromysiops, Dromiciops (monito del monte) and Glironia (bushy-tailed opossum) under a single subfamily, Microbiotheriinae, noting the dental similarities among these.

A 1977 study argued that these similarities are the result of convergent evolution, and placed Caluromys, Caluromysiops and Glironia in a new subfamily, Caluromyinae.

[6] The following four subspecies are recognized:[2][4] The cladogram below, based on a 2016 study, shows the phylogenetic relationships of the bare-tailed woolly opossum.

A study showed that activity of bare-tailed woolly opossums can be affected by the extent of moonlight.

[9] A study showed that the tail, being prehensile, can act as an additional limb for locomotion, avoiding falls and carrying leaves to build nests.

[8] Individuals tend to be aggressive to one another; hisses, grunts and even distress calls accompany agonistic behavior.

In a primary forest of French Guiana, the mean home range size was calculated as 3 hectares (0.012 sq mi).

Bare-tailed woolly opossums, like other Caluromys species, will bite on being handled or to escape predators.

The IUCN classifies the bare-tailed woolly opossum as least concern, due to its wide distribution and presumed large population.