How many baby Greater red musk shrews are in a litter?
A Greater red musk shrew (Crocidura flavescens) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 25 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 7.8 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Crocidura). An adult Greater red musk shrew grows up to a size of 36.3 cm (1′ 3″).
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 greater red musk shrew (Crocidura flavescens) is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, and Eswatini. Its natural habitats are moist savanna, temperate grassland, and rural gardens. Like most shrew species, C. flavenscens is nocturnal. The greater red musk shrew is considered to be asocial and territorial, with males using scent marking to establish their territory. Males appear to be more aggressive than females, and their aggression increases with greater population density.
Other animals of the family Soricidae
Greater red musk shrew is a member of the Soricidae, as are these animals:
- Southeastern shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Long-tailed shrew with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Jouvenet’s shrew weighting only 9 grams
- Merida small-eared shrew weighting only 12 grams
- Doucet’s musk shrew weighting only 4 grams
- Climbing shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Buettikofer’s shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Blackish white-toothed shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Smoky shrew with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Chinese water shrew raching a size of 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
Animals that share a litter size with Greater red musk shrew
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Lesser red musk shrew
- Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse
- Volcano harvest mouse
- Flat-headed shrew
- Mazama pocket gopher
- Southwestern water vole
- San Diego pocket mouse
- Indian hairy-footed gerbil
- Elias’s Atlantic spiny rat
- Southern flying squirrel
Animals with the same weight as a Greater red musk shrew
What other animals weight around 31 grams (0.07 lbs)?
- Oligoryzomys griseolus weighting 25 grams
- Macmillan’s thicket rat weighting 37 grams
- Olrog’s chaco mouse weighting 32 grams
- Hairy-footed gerbil weighting 25 grams
- Oligoryzomys destructor weighting 25 grams
- Guadeloupe big-eyed bat weighting 35 grams
- Mole-like rice tenrec weighting 34 grams
- Hatt’s vesper rat weighting 36 grams
- Nagtglas’s African dormouse weighting 30 grams
- Handleyomys alfaroi weighting 33 grams