How many baby Pyrenean desmans are in a litter?
A Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 30 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 3 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Talpidae family (genus: Galemys). An adult Pyrenean desman grows up to a size of 12.5 cm (0′ 5″).
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 Pyrenean desman (Galemys pyrenaicus) is a small semiaquatic, globally threatened mammal related to moles and shrews, and, along with the Russian desman (Desmana moschata), is one of the two extant members of the tribe Desmanini. The species occurs in north and central parts of Spain and Portugal, French Pyrenees, and Andorra, but severe range contractions have been documented across its geographic distribution.
Other animals of the family Talpidae
Pyrenean desman is a member of the Talpidae, as are these animals:
- Chinese shrew mole weighting only 16 grams
- Echigo mole weighting only 163 grams
- Kobe mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Coast mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Balkan mole weighting only 70 grams
- Japanese shrew mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Large mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Russian desman with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Townsend’s mole with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Japanese mountain mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Pyrenean desman
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Masked white-tailed rat
- Hooper’s mouse
- Stella wood mouse
- Slender squirrel
- Snowshoe hare
- American hog-nosed skunk
- Bengal fox
- Crab-eating mongoose
- True’s shrew mole
- Yarkand hare
Animals that get as old as a Pyrenean desman
Other animals that usually reach the age of 5 years:
- Lesser Egyptian jerboa with 6 years
- Coruro with 6 years
- Uinta ground squirrel with 5 years
- White-tailed rat with 6 years
- Fat-tailed dunnart with 4.25 years
- Mexican funnel-eared bat with 4.75 years
- Giant golden mole with 4 years
- Yellow-pine chipmunk with 5.17 years
- Dark kangaroo mouse with 5.42 years
- Botta’s pocket gopher with 4.5 years
Animals with the same weight as a Pyrenean desman
What other animals weight around 60 grams (0.13 lbs)?
- Lodgepole chipmunk weighting 60 grams
- Southern multimammate mouse weighting 53 grams
- East African little collared fruit bat weighting 53 grams
- Van Deusen’s rat weighting 67 grams
- Garlepp’s mouse weighting 59 grams
- Southern big-eared mouse weighting 70 grams
- Eastern tube-nosed bat weighting 48 grams
- African wading rat weighting 62 grams
- Panamint chipmunk weighting 51 grams
- Spanish mole weighting 48 grams
Animals with the same size as a Pyrenean desman
Also reaching around 12.5 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Greater big-footed mouse gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Eastern chipmunk gets as big as 14.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Yucatan deer mouse gets as big as 10 cm (0′ 4″)
- Pocock’s highland rat gets as big as 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Swift fruit bat gets as big as 10.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Red rock rat gets as big as 14.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Big-eared kangaroo rat gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Uinta chipmunk gets as big as 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Four-striped grass mouse gets as big as 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Siberian chipmunk gets as big as 14.8 cm (0′ 6″)