How many baby Baird’s pocket gophers are in a litter?
A Baird’s pocket gopher (Geomys breviceps) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 2 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 674 grams (1.49 lbs) and measure 3.6 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Geomyidae family (genus: Geomys). An adult Baird’s pocket gopher 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.
Baird’s pocket gopher or the Louisiana pocket gopher (Geomys breviceps) is a species of pocket gopher that is native to the southern United States. In total, there are three almost identical species of eastern pocket gopher; Geomys attwateri, G. bursarius, and G. breviceps. G. breviceps is larger in size, G. attwateri is medium-sized and G. bursarius is a bit smaller. Other than by size variation they are not identifiable by external features. Baird’s pocket gophers are small rodents with most of their weight on the top half of their bodies.Baird’s pocket gopher is native to eastern Texas, western Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas. It is a burrowing creature, meaning it digs tunnels and generally lives underground, except during the rainy seasons. It has sharp, long, curved front claws designed specifically for digging. Generally, it is safe from predators since it lives underground, though other burrowing rodents such as badgers and long tailed weasels may pose a threat. Baird’s pocket gopher has bacteria in its digestive system, allowing it to digest various grasses and it is able to re-ingest fecal pellets. It is polygamous and has a high reproductive rate, which is one of the main reasons for its survival. On average, Baird’s pocket gopher has two to three babies per litter. It lives about 1 to 2 years in the wild.
Other animals of the family Geomyidae
Baird’s pocket gopher is a member of the Geomyidae, as are these animals:
- Smoky pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Texas pocket gopher with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Smoky pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Michoacan pocket gopher weighting only 474 grams
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Southeastern pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Camas pocket gopher with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Central Texas pocket gopher weighting only 599 grams
- Alcorn’s pocket gopher weighting only 150 grams
- Wyoming pocket gopher with 6 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Baird’s pocket gopher
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Fraser’s musk shrew
- Feathertail glider
- American black bear
- Plateau mouse
- False water rat
- Somali serotine
- Fresno kangaroo rat
- Baluchistan pygmy jerboa
- Butiaba naked-tailed shrew
- Slender mongoose
Animals with the same weight as a Baird’s pocket gopher
What other animals weight around 136 grams (0.3 lbs)?
- Lorentz’s mosaic-tailed rat weighting 150 grams
- Franquet’s epauletted fruit bat weighting 119 grams
- European water vole weighting 120 grams
- Tate’s woolly mouse opossum weighting 112 grams
- Osgood’s short-tailed opossum weighting 112 grams
- Amazonian marsh rat weighting 120 grams
- Giant kangaroo rat weighting 114 grams
- Dusky rat weighting 146 grams
- Red-cheeked flying squirrel weighting 118 grams
- Large-scaled mosaic-tailed rat weighting 117 grams
Animals with the same size as a Baird’s pocket gopher
Also reaching around 15 cm (0′ 6″) in size do these animals:
- Greater fairy armadillo gets as big as 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Palawan soft-furred mountain rat gets as big as 14.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- Hispid cotton rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Southern flying squirrel gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Slender rat gets as big as 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Whitehead’s spiny rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Long-nosed mosaic-tailed rat gets as big as 15.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Big-eared kangaroo rat gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Western water rat gets as big as 15.1 cm (0′ 6″)