How many baby European water voles are in a litter?
A European water vole (Arvicola terrestris) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 12 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 21 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 5 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 5.8 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Arvicola). An adult European water vole grows up to a size of 19.3 cm (0′ 8″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The European water vole or northern water vole (Arvicola amphibius, included in synonymy: A. terrestris), is a semi-aquatic rodent. It is often informally called the water rat, though it only superficially resembles a true rat. Water voles have rounder noses than rats, deep brown fur, chubby faces and short fuzzy ears; unlike rats their tails, paws and ears are covered with hair.In the wild, on average, water voles only live about five months. Maximum longevity in captivity is two and a half years.
Other animals of the family Muridae
European water vole is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Chestnut tree mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Stirton’s deer mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Tarabundí vole with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Large pencil-tailed tree mouse weighting only 28 grams
- Thomas’s mosaic-tailed rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Neuquén grass mouse weighting only 42 grams
- Zygodontomys brevicauda with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Rock vole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Small vesper mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Sooretamys weighting only 144 grams
Animals that share a litter size with European water vole
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Pallas’s cat
- Gray-collared chipmunk
- Pale fox
- American mink
- Ethiopian white-footed mouse
- Panamint chipmunk
- European mink
- Barbary striped grass mouse
- Sody’s tree rat
- Greater hamster-rat
Animals that get as old as a European water vole
Other animals that usually reach the age of 5 years:
- Banded hare-wallaby with 4 years
- Gray short-tailed opossum with 6 years
- Numbat with 6 years
- Val’s gundi with 5 years
- Bank vole with 4.83 years
- Brown-eared woolly opossum with 5 years
- Desert hedgehog with 4.5 years
- Tiger quoll with 5 years
- Paucident planigale with 5 years
- Bushy-tailed jird with 5.33 years
Animals with the same weight as a European water vole
What other animals weight around 120 grams (0.26 lbs)?
- Harris’s antelope squirrel weighting 127 grams
- Slender rat weighting 97 grams
- Osgood’s short-tailed opossum weighting 112 grams
- Dian’s tarsier weighting 111 grams
- African groove-toothed rat weighting 111 grams
- Masked flying fox weighting 130 grams
- Greater Egyptian jerboa weighting 138 grams
- Tanezumi rat weighting 140 grams
- Long-haired rousette weighting 104 grams
- Green bush squirrel weighting 100 grams
Animals with the same size as a European water vole
Also reaching around 19.3 cm (0′ 8″) in size do these animals:
- Pygmy ringtail possum gets as big as 19.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Tawitawi forest rat gets as big as 19 cm (0′ 8″)
- Hispid cotton rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Panniet naked-backed fruit bat gets as big as 18.6 cm (0′ 8″)
- Harris’s antelope squirrel gets as big as 16 cm (0′ 7″)
- Summit rat gets as big as 19 cm (0′ 8″)
- Long-nosed paramelomys gets as big as 17 cm (0′ 7″)
- Madagascan fruit bat gets as big as 20.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Jentink’s squirrel gets as big as 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Steinbach’s tuco-tuco gets as big as 19.6 cm (0′ 8″)