How many baby Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossums are in a litter?
A Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum (Thylamys elegans) usually gives birth to around 10 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 20 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 119 grams (0.26 lbs) and measure 36.8 cm (1′ 3″). They are a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Thylamys). An adult Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum grows up to a size of 12 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 elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum (Thylamys elegans), also known as the Chilean mouse opossum, is an opossum from central Chile. The type species of Thylamys, it was first described by English naturalist George Robert Waterhouse in 1839. This medium-sized opossum is characterized by black rings around the eyes, white limbs, gray to light brown coat, lighter flanks and underbelly and a thick 12.7–14.6 centimetres (5.0–5.7 in) long tail covered with hairs. It is crepuscular (active mainly around twilight) and lives in nests in tree hollows or under rocks and roots. This opossum feeds mainly on arthropods and larvae apart from fruits. Litter size is typically between 11 and 13. The elegant fat-tailed opossum can occur in a variety of habitats – from cloud forests to chaparrals. The IUCN classifies the opossum as least concern.
Other animals of the family Didelphidae
Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum is a member of the Didelphidae, as are these animals:
- Red mouse opossum weighting only 63 grams
- Mexican mouse opossum with 11 babies per pregnancy
- Bishop’s slender opossum raching a size of 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Sepia short-tailed opossum weighting only 36 grams
- Grayish mouse opossum with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Emilia’s gracile opossum weighting only 7 grams
- Long-nosed short-tailed opossum weighting only 765 grams
- Osgood’s short-tailed opossum weighting only 112 grams
- Common fat-tailed mouse opossum weighting only 28 grams
- Marajó short-tailed opossum raching a size of 13.4 cm (0′ 6″)
Animals that share a litter size with Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum
Those animals also give birth to 10 babies at once:
Animals with the same weight as a Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum
What other animals weight around 28 grams (0.06 lbs)?
- Pacific jumping mouse weighting 27 grams
- Yellow-necked mouse weighting 31 grams
- Barbary striped grass mouse weighting 26 grams
- Long-eared flying mouse weighting 27 grams
- Osgood’s mouse weighting 27 grams
- Lesser tube-nosed fruit bat weighting 24 grams
- Mauritian tomb bat weighting 27 grams
- Southern long-nosed bat weighting 25 grams
- Cheesman’s gerbil weighting 28 grams
- Pygmy mouse lemur weighting 31 grams
Animals with the same size as a Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum
Also reaching around 12 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Bornean water shrew gets as big as 10 cm (0′ 4″)
- Glacier rat gets as big as 12.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Gray-cheeked flying squirrel gets as big as 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Moss-forest rat gets as big as 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Island tube-nosed fruit bat gets as big as 13.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- One-striped opossum gets as big as 13.7 cm (0′ 6″)
- Nelson’s kangaroo rat gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Common rock rat gets as big as 10.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Dibbler gets as big as 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Masked white-tailed rat gets as big as 13.5 cm (0′ 6″)