How many baby Tamarisk jirds are in a litter?
A Tamarisk jird (Meriones tamariscinus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 8 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 1.5 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Meriones). An adult Tamarisk jird grows up to a size of 15 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 tamarisk jird (Meriones tamariscinus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It prefers habitats with grass or shrub cover.Tamarisk jirds are relatively large in size (an adult can weigh 100 – 140 g). They are poorly adapted for digestion of cellulose and mainly feed on plant sources such as young leaves, and require large amounts of water.The tamarisk jird is a nocturnal animal and is also a strictly solitary animal. Males usually occupy larger home ranges compared to females, and interactions between individuals are very rare. Tamarisk jirds breed between March to October, usually producing 2 – 3 litters. Young jirds first emerge from their burrows between May to June, and they quickly disperse, rarely interacting with their siblings and mother. Tamarisk jirds reach sexual maturity at 70 days, but young males do not mate in their first year of age. For young females, less than half have been observed to breed in their first year of age, and this delay has been proposed to be associated with their delay in migration from their birth site.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Tamarisk jird is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Transcaucasian mole vole with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Glacier rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Grassland mosaic-tailed rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Giant naked-tailed rat with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Southern Plains woodrat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Vinogradov’s jird with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Yellow-bellied climbing mouse weighting only 59 grams
- Guatemalan vole weighting only 42 grams
- Unexpected cotton rat weighting only 140 grams
- Taiwan field mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Tamarisk jird
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once: