How many baby Cape dune mole-rats are in a litter?
A Cape dune mole-rat (Bathyergus suillus) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 2 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 68 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 34 grams (0.07 lbs) and measure 5.2 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Bathyergidae family (genus: Bathyergus). An adult Cape dune mole-rat 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 Cape dune mole-rat (Bathyergus suillus) is a species of solitary burrowing rodent in the family Bathyergidae. It is endemic to South Africa and named for the Cape of Good Hope.
Other animals of the family Bathyergidae
Cape dune mole-rat is a member of the Bathyergidae, as are these animals:
- Silvery mole-rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Namaqua dune mole-rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Bocage’s mole-rat weighting only 93 grams
- Ansell’s mole-rat weighting only 85 grams
- Mashona mole-rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Zambian mole-rat weighting only 76 grams
- Ochre mole-rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Naked mole-rat with 11 babies per pregnancy
- Cape mole-rat with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Mechow’s mole-rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Cape dune mole-rat
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- European pine vole
- Buffy-headed marmoset
- Southern spiny pocket mouse
- American black bear
- Gobi jerboa
- Eastern rat
- Champion’s tree mouse
- Merriam’s kangaroo rat
- Pampas cat
- Asian particolored bat
Animals with the same weight as a Cape dune mole-rat
What other animals weight around 804 grams (1.77 lbs)?
- Desert rat-kangaroo weighting 929 grams
- Conover’s tuco-tuco weighting 860 grams
- Common ringtail possum weighting 895 grams
- Long-nosed bandicoot weighting 720 grams
- Bolivian bamboo rat weighting 729 grams
- Arizona gray squirrel weighting 647 grams
- Nancy Ma’s night monkey weighting 791 grams
- American marten weighting 878 grams
- Giant naked-tailed rat weighting 745 grams
- Black-capped squirrel monkey weighting 802 grams
Animals with the same size as a Cape dune mole-rat
Also reaching around 27.9 cm (0′ 11″) in size do these animals:
- Meerkat gets as big as 28.6 cm (1′ 0″)
- Sunda slow loris gets as big as 30 cm (1′ 0″)
- Giant Atlantic tree-rat gets as big as 28.2 cm (1′ 0″)
- Tailless tenrec gets as big as 32.7 cm (1′ 1″)
- Long-clawed ground squirrel gets as big as 24.4 cm (0′ 10″)
- Red-handed tamarin gets as big as 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Northern glider gets as big as 25.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Great flying fox gets as big as 27.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- White-tailed antsangy gets as big as 22.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Masoala fork-marked lemur gets as big as 26.1 cm (0′ 11″)