How many baby Nicobar shrews are in a litter?
A Nicobar shrew (Crocidura nicobarica) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 4.1 kg (9.04 lbs) and measure 3.6 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Crocidura). An adult Nicobar shrew grows up to a size of 10 cm (0′ 4″).
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 Nicobar shrew or Nicobar white-tailed shrew (Crocidura nicobarica) is a critically endangered species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the Great Nicobar Island of India.
Other animals of the family Soricidae
Nicobar shrew is a member of the Soricidae, as are these animals:
- Blackish small-eared shrew weighting only 8 grams
- Egyptian pygmy shrew weighting only 7 grams
- African black shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Flat-headed shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Dent’s shrew weighting only 4 grams
- Himalayan shrew with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Preble’s shrew weighting only 3 grams
- Ultimate shrew weighting only 16 grams
- Wandering small-eared shrew weighting only 11 grams
- Greater stripe-backed shrew with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Nicobar shrew
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Père David’s mole
- Tullberg’s soft-furred mouse
- Western red-backed vole
- Coruro
- Royle’s pika
- Slender squirrel
- Elias’s Atlantic spiny rat
- Kashmir flying squirrel
- Gray fox
- Sable
Animals with the same size as a Nicobar shrew
Also reaching around 10 cm (0′ 4″) in size do these animals:
- Lesser tree mouse gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Large pencil-tailed tree mouse gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Shining thicket rat gets as big as 11.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Texas kangaroo rat gets as big as 11.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mindanao shrew-rat gets as big as 10.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Common fat-tailed mouse opossum gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- California kangaroo rat gets as big as 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Van Zyl’s golden mole gets as big as 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Sandstone false antechinus gets as big as 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Djoongari gets as big as 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)