How many baby Dusky caenolestids are in a litter?
A Dusky caenolestid (Caenolestes fuliginosus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 100 grams (0.22 lbs) and measure 7.2 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Caenolestidae family (genus: Caenolestes). An adult Dusky caenolestid grows up to a size of 11.3 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 dusky caenolestid (Caenolestes fuliginosus), also known as Tate’s shrew opossum, is a shrew opossum from South America. The dusky caenolestid is characterized by a dark brown coat with a lighter underbelly, soft and thick fur, and a loosely haired tail. A nocturnal animal (active mainly at night), the dusky caenolestid lives on trees and feeds on insects and small invertebrates and vertebrates. It occurs in alpine and páramo forests in northern and western Colombia, Ecuador, and western Venezuela. The IUCN classifies this shrew opossum as least concern.
Other animals of the family Caenolestidae
Dusky caenolestid is a member of the Caenolestidae, as are these animals:
- Andean caenolestid weighting only 47 grams
- Gray-bellied caenolestid with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Long-nosed caenolestid weighting only 21 grams
- Northern caenolestid weighting only 31 grams
- Incan caenolestid weighting only 23 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Dusky caenolestid
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Royle’s pika
- Pygmy hog
- Bower’s white-toothed rat
- Small Japanese mole
- Juniper vole
- Indian long-eared hedgehog
- White-ankled mouse
- Eastern red bat
- Horsfield’s shrew
- Vancouver Island marmot
Animals with the same weight as a Dusky caenolestid
What other animals weight around 29 grams (0.06 lbs)?
- Northern grasshopper mouse weighting 27 grams
- Oligoryzomys arenalis weighting 25 grams
- Anderson’s gerbil weighting 31 grams
- Lindbergh’s grass mouse weighting 26 grams
- White-tailed dunnart weighting 25 grams
- Southern long-nosed bat weighting 25 grams
- Mindanao montane forest mouse weighting 34 grams
- Olive grass mouse weighting 24 grams
- Eastern heather vole weighting 27 grams
- Dalton’s mouse weighting 34 grams
Animals with the same size as a Dusky caenolestid
Also reaching around 11.3 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Juliana’s golden mole gets as big as 10 cm (0′ 4″)
- Parantechinus bilarni gets as big as 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Ethiopian epauletted fruit bat gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Long-tailed vole gets as big as 11.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Northern short-tailed shrew gets as big as 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Van Deusen’s rat gets as big as 13.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Northern water rat gets as big as 12.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Greater big-footed mouse gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Gray slender opossum gets as big as 13 cm (0′ 6″)