How many baby Web-footed tenrecs are in a litter?
A Web-footed tenrec (Limnogale mergulus) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 2 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 90 grams (0.2 lbs) and measure 15.6 cm (0′ 7″). They are a member of the Tenrecidae family (genus: Limnogale). An adult Web-footed tenrec grows up to a size of 14.5 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 web-footed tenrec, otter shrew, or aquatic tenrec (Microgale mergulus) is the only known semiaquatic tenrec (the related African otter shrews have similar habits), and is found in eastern Madagascar, especially in and around Ranomafana National Park. It grows to between 25 and 39 cm, and was once thought to be extinct. It feeds on crabs, water insects, and crayfish. It weighs between 40 and 60 grams, and the population is considered vulnerable. It was formerly placed in the monotypic genus Limnogale, but has been moved to Microgale based on molecular data showing it to be deeply nested within the latter.
Other animals of the family Tenrecidae
Web-footed tenrec is a member of the Tenrecidae, as are these animals:
- Talazac’s shrew tenrec with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Large-eared tenrec with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Shrew-toothed shrew tenrec weighting only 18 grams
- Montane shrew tenrec weighting only 13 grams
- Lesser hedgehog tenrec with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Ruwenzori otter shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Pygmy shrew tenrec weighting only 3 grams
- Least shrew tenrec weighting only 3 grams
- Greater long-tailed shrew tenrec weighting only 10 grams
- Mole-like rice tenrec weighting only 34 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Web-footed tenrec
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Javan mongoose
- Pied tamarin
- Big deer mouse
- Oecomys bicolor
- Blanford’s rat
- Common gundi
- Eastern gray squirrel
- Greater bamboo bat
- Banded linsang
- Yellow-spotted brush-furred rat
Animals with the same weight as a Web-footed tenrec
What other animals weight around 77 grams (0.17 lbs)?
- Aegialomys galapagoensis weighting 63 grams
- Gregarious short-tailed rat weighting 92 grams
- Splendid climbing mouse weighting 89 grams
- Norway lemming weighting 67 grams
- Shaw’s jird weighting 90 grams
- Van Deusen’s rat weighting 67 grams
- Arctic lemming weighting 78 grams
- Andean swamp rat weighting 64 grams
- Pohle’s fruit bat weighting 69 grams
- Gray-cheeked flying squirrel weighting 63 grams
Animals with the same size as a Web-footed tenrec
Also reaching around 14.5 cm (0′ 6″) in size do these animals:
- Western rock elephant shrew gets as big as 12.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Plateau pika gets as big as 17 cm (0′ 7″)
- Vogelkop mountain rat gets as big as 13.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- Lesser Angolan epauletted fruit bat gets as big as 16.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Pygmy marmoset gets as big as 15.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Harpy fruit bat gets as big as 15.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Rough-haired golden mole gets as big as 15 cm (0′ 6″)
- Gunning’s golden mole gets as big as 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Whitehead’s spiny rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Red spiny rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)