How many baby Common rock rats are in a litter?
A Common rock rat (Zyzomys argurus) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 25 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 11.1 cm (0′ 5″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Zyzomys). An adult Common rock rat grows up to a size of 10.7 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 common rock rat (Zyzomys argurus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Australia, where it lives in the rocky areas of woodlands, grasslands and low open forests, particularly on the talus, or scree, of cliff slopes. As a nocturnal animal, it spends the daytime nesting in cool rock crevices. Direct exposure to the sun can quickly result in heat stroke and death.The rock rat is an overall golden brown with white belly. It can weigh anywhere 25–65 grams, with a head to body length of 85–140 mm. The thick tail is 90–125 mm long and contains fat deposits. The tail is covered in overlapping scales and sparse hairs. The skin of the tail can easily be pulled off, allowing the animal to escape predators in some situations (this function is similar to that of lizard tail autotomy).They are sexually mature at 5 to 6 months of age. The females have 4 nipples but litters average 2 to 3 offspring. Gestation is about 35 days. By the 10th day, the offspring are covered in fur, and by the 12th day their eyes are open. They are weaned by 4 weeks of age. The life span of the Common Rock Rat in the wild is unknown, but an age of 4.2 years in captivity has been reported.Their diet consists of plant matter, grasses, seeds, fungi and insects.. One was observed in Maguk, Kakadu National Park, tucking into a plate of custard and rice pudding that someone had left unattended (Goodfellow, Fauna of Kakadu and the Top End, 1993).
Other animals of the family Muridae
Common rock rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Greater tree mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Cerrado mouse weighting only 24 grams
- Forest Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
- Paramo hocicudo weighting only 41 grams
- Plains harvest mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Red rock rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Long-tailed hopping mouse weighting only 100 grams
- Abrothrix andinus weighting only 18 grams
- Aegialomys xanthaeolus weighting only 79 grams
- Robbins’s tateril weighting only 47 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Common rock rat
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Nyctophilus corbeni
- Mexican vole
- Platypus
- European snow vole
- Meller’s mongoose
- Masked palm civet
- Small-toothed palm civet
- African clawless otter
- Jungle cat
- Black-and-white ruffed lemur
Animals with the same weight as a Common rock rat
What other animals weight around 40 grams (0.09 lbs)?
- Defua rat weighting 43 grams
- Little collared fruit bat weighting 44 grams
- Chihuahuan mouse weighting 40 grams
- Meadow vole weighting 42 grams
- Temchuk’s bolo mouse weighting 47 grams
- Plateau mouse weighting 40 grams
- Western mouse weighting 34 grams
- Short-snouted elephant shrew weighting 45 grams
- Rufous-bellied bolo mouse weighting 32 grams
- Delectable soft-furred mouse weighting 35 grams
Animals with the same size as a Common rock rat
Also reaching around 10.7 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Antechinus wilhelmina gets as big as 10.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Prince Demidoff’s bushbaby gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Parantechinus bilarni gets as big as 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Northern red-backed vole gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Alpine chipmunk gets as big as 10.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Woodland thicket rat gets as big as 11 cm (0′ 5″)
- Dian’s tarsier gets as big as 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Pen-tailed treeshrew gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Zempoaltepec gets as big as 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)