How many baby Arctic ground squirrels are in a litter?
A Arctic ground squirrel (Spermophilus parryii) usually gives birth to around 6 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 25 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 11 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 5.2 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Spermophilus). An adult Arctic ground squirrel grows up to a size of 27.9 cm (0′ 11″).
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 Arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) (Inuktitut: ᓯᒃᓯᒃ, siksik) is a species of ground squirrel native to the Arctic and Subarctic of North America and Asia. People in Alaska, particularly around the Aleutians, refer to them as “parka” squirrels, most likely because their pelt is good for the ruff on parkas and for clothing.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Arctic ground squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Asian red-cheeked squirrel weighting only 201 grams
- Three-striped ground squirrel weighting only 175 grams
- Zanj sun squirrel weighting only 347 grams
- Mexican gray squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Perote ground squirrel with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Unstriped ground squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Allen’s chipmunk with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Grey-bellied squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Cliff chipmunk with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Low’s squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Arctic ground squirrel
Those animals also give birth to 6 babies at once:
- Eurasian pygmy shrew
- Afghan pika
- North American brown lemming
- Eurasian water shrew
- White-eared opossum
- Brush-tailed phascogale
- Günther’s vole
- Crest-tailed mulgara
- Northern quoll
- Greater bandicoot rat
Animals with the same weight as a Arctic ground squirrel
What other animals weight around 747 grams (1.65 lbs)?
- Guinea pig weighting 728 grams
- Central American squirrel monkey weighting 714 grams
- American marten weighting 878 grams
- Northern sportive lemur weighting 760 grams
- Black squirrel monkey weighting 784 grams
- Bare-eared squirrel monkey weighting 888 grams
- Gray-bellied night monkey weighting 800 grams
- Tailless tenrec weighting 894 grams
- Swynnerton’s bush squirrel weighting 675 grams
- Livingstone’s fruit bat weighting 733 grams
Animals with the same size as a Arctic ground squirrel
Also reaching around 27.9 cm (0′ 11″) in size do these animals:
- Large Luzon forest rat gets as big as 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Siberian weasel gets as big as 30.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Calabar angwantibo gets as big as 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Pichi gets as big as 29.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- Great flying fox gets as big as 27.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- San José brush rabbit gets as big as 29.4 cm (1′ 0″)
- Central American squirrel monkey gets as big as 28.2 cm (1′ 0″)
- Moonrat gets as big as 32.7 cm (1′ 1″)
- Common degu gets as big as 28 cm (1′ 0″)
- Cape ground squirrel gets as big as 24.7 cm (0′ 10″)