How many baby Arctic lemmings are in a litter?
A Arctic lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 17 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 3.4 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Dicrostonyx). An adult Arctic lemming grows up to a size of 11.7 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 Arctic lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus) is a species of rodents in the family Cricetidae.Although generally classified as a “least concern” species, the Novaya Zemlya subspecies (Dicrostonyx torquatus ungulatus) is considered a vulnerable species under Russian nature conservation legislation (included in Red Book of Russian Federation since 1998).
Other animals of the family Muridae
Arctic lemming is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Michoacan deer mouse with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Chinanteco deer mouse weighting only 40 grams
- Van Deusen’s rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- One-toothed shrew mouse weighting only 21 grams
- Tanala tufted-tailed rat weighting only 90 grams
- Darwin’s leaf-eared mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- New Guinea waterside rat weighting only 526 grams
- Field vole with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Delicate vesper mouse weighting only 13 grams
- Highveld gerbil with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Arctic lemming
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Southern big-eared mouse
- Jackson’s shrew
- Rajah spiny rat
- Western red-backed vole
- Blackish white-toothed shrew
- Cotton mouse
- Desert hedgehog
- Comb-toed jerboa
- Gansu pika
- Nyika rock rat
Animals that get as old as a Arctic lemming
Other animals that usually reach the age of 3.75 years:
- Pallas’s pika with 4 years
- Fat-tailed gerbil with 4.33 years
- Günther’s vole with 3.83 years
- Lemur-like ringtail possum with 4 years
- North African elephant shrew with 3 years
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with 3.75 years
- Fat-tailed false antechinus with 3 years
- Southwestern water vole with 3.5 years
- Red-tailed phascogale with 3 years
- Cape mole-rat with 3 years
Animals with the same weight as a Arctic lemming
What other animals weight around 78 grams (0.17 lbs)?
- Swift fruit bat weighting 66 grams
- Slender Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Bunny rat weighting 79 grams
- Daphne’s Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat weighting 80 grams
- Gaumer’s spiny pocket mouse weighting 63 grams
- Soft-furred rat weighting 67 grams
- Small hocicudo weighting 67 grams
- Ghana rufous-nosed rat weighting 85 grams
- Eastern chestnut mouse weighting 79 grams