How many baby Belding’s ground squirrels are in a litter?
A Belding’s ground squirrel (Spermophilus beldingi) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 5 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 26 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 6 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 5.6 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Spermophilus). An adult Belding’s ground squirrel grows up to a size of 23.6 cm (0′ 10″).
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.
Belding’s ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), also called pot gut, sage rat or picket-pin, is a squirrel that lives on mountains in the western United States. In California, it often is found at 6,500 to 11,800 feet (2,000–3,600 m) in meadows between Lake Tahoe and Kings Canyon. This species is not of conservation concern, and its range includes some protected areas.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Belding’s ground squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Hopi chipmunk weighting only 53 grams
- Davao squirrel raching a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Tufted ground squirrel weighting around 1.35 kilograms (2.98 lbs)
- Unstriped ground squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Olympic marmot with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Busuanga squirrel raching a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Spermophilus relictus with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Northern flying squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Cliff chipmunk with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Deppe’s squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Belding’s ground squirrel
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- New Guinean rat
- Water vole (North America)
- Marbled polecat
- Sminthopsis laniger
- Meadow jumping mouse
- Lowland streaked tenrec
- Variegated squirrel
- Oligoryzomys flavescens
- Lesser fat-tailed jerboa
- Slender shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Belding’s ground squirrel
What other animals weight around 272 grams (0.6 lbs)?
- Steere’s spiny rat weighting 284 grams
- Round-tailed muskrat weighting 265 grams
- White-spined Atlantic spiny rat weighting 284 grams
- Squirrel glider weighting 230 grams
- Three-striped dasyure weighting 223 grams
- Calabar angwantibo weighting 258 grams
- Bioko Allen’s bushbaby weighting 268 grams
- Pseudocheirus schlegeli weighting 256 grams
- Tate’s triok weighting 252 grams
- Guyanan spiny rat weighting 284 grams
Animals with the same size as a Belding’s ground squirrel
Also reaching around 23.6 cm (0′ 10″) in size do these animals:
- Moluccan flying fox gets as big as 25.3 cm (0′ 10″)
- Arctic ground squirrel gets as big as 27.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- Hamlyn’s monkey gets as big as 28 cm (1′ 0″)
- Lesser flying fox gets as big as 19 cm (0′ 8″)
- Geelvink Bay flying fox gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Bare-tailed woolly opossum gets as big as 22.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Golden-mantled ground squirrel gets as big as 21.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Mentawai squirrel gets as big as 21.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Amur hedgehog gets as big as 24.9 cm (0′ 10″)
- Sulawesi flying fox gets as big as 20.1 cm (0′ 8″)