How many baby North African elephant shrews are in a litter?
A North African elephant shrew (Elephantulus rozeti) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 75 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 8 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 8 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Macroscelididae family (genus: Elephantulus). An adult North African elephant shrew grows up to a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″).
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 North African elephant shrew (Petrosaltator rozeti) or North African sengi is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. It is found in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, and is the only extant afrotherian within its range. Recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that its status as the only extant member of its order north of the Sahara has resulted in a genetic split from the other Macroscelididae species. This split likely occurred during the Miocene period. In 2016, John Dumbacher and colleagues created a new genus, Petrosaltator, for this species, recombining the scientific name to Petrosaltator rozeti.
Other animals of the family Macroscelididae
North African elephant shrew is a member of the Macroscelididae, as are these animals:
- Checkered elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Somali elephant shrew weighting only 32 grams
- Eastern rock elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Four-toed elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Dusky elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Black and rufous elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Short-snouted elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Bushveld elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Macroscelides proboscideus with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Western rock elephant shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with North African elephant shrew
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Particolored flying squirrel
- Florida mouse
- Southern yellow bat
- Peters’s climbing rat
- Indian crested porcupine
- Tasmanian devil
- Greater long-tailed hamster
- White-throated woodrat
- Schlieffen’s bat
- Buettikofer’s shrew
Animals that get as old as a North African elephant shrew
Other animals that usually reach the age of 3 years:
- Bush rat with 3.42 years
- Broad-footed mole with 3 years
- Raffray’s bandicoot with 3.25 years
- Eastern woodrat with 3 years
- Chestnut tree mouse with 2.42 years
- Japanese shrew mole with 3.5 years
- Southwestern myotis with 3.17 years
- Yellow-footed antechinus with 3.5 years
- Vinogradov’s jird with 3.33 years
- Red hocicudo with 2.58 years
Animals with the same weight as a North African elephant shrew
What other animals weight around 43 grams (0.09 lbs)?
- Rock vole weighting 39 grams
- Sepia short-tailed opossum weighting 36 grams
- Wagner’s bonneted bat weighting 36 grams
- Grayish mouse opossum weighting 47 grams
- Grant’s rock mouse weighting 40 grams
- Djoongari weighting 43 grams
- Brazilian slender opossum weighting 38 grams
- Eastern broad-toothed field mouse weighting 43 grams
- Panamanian spiny pocket mouse weighting 51 grams
- Red-nosed mouse weighting 46 grams