How many baby Bushveld gerbils are in a litter?
A Bushveld gerbil (Gerbilliscus leucogaster) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 28 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 3.6 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Gerbilliscus). An adult Bushveld gerbil 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.
The Bushveld gerbil (Gerbilliscus leucogaster) is a species of gerbil found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are dry savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, and hot deserts.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Bushveld gerbil is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Beady-eyed mouse weighting only 77 grams
- White-tailed antsangy weighting only 205 grams
- Setzer’s pygmy mouse weighting only 6 grams
- Sikkim rat with 10 babies per pregnancy
- Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Buenos Aires leaf-eared mouse weighting only 42 grams
- Delicate mouse with 1 babies per pregnancy
- White-footed rabbit-rat weighting only 200 grams
- Zempoaltepec deer mouse with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Gray spiny mouse raching a size of 8.5 cm (0′ 4″)
Animals that share a litter size with Bushveld gerbil
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Northern bog lemming
- Nectomys squamipes
- Tarbagan marmot
- Red fox
- Golden jackal
- European hedgehog
- Short-tailed shrew tenrec
- American mink
- Oligoryzomys longicaudatus
- Side-striped jackal
Animals with the same weight as a Bushveld gerbil
What other animals weight around 73 grams (0.16 lbs)?
- Ansell’s mole-rat weighting 85 grams
- Slender Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Yellow-bellied climbing mouse weighting 59 grams
- Big-eared climbing rat weighting 86 grams
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat weighting 80 grams
- Merriam’s chipmunk weighting 74 grams
- Aegialomys xanthaeolus weighting 79 grams
- Nelson’s kangaroo rat weighting 87 grams
- Cinnamon antechinus weighting 71 grams
- Edward’s swamp rat weighting 63 grams