How many baby Eastern cottontails are in a litter?
A Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 4 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 16 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 27 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 34 grams (0.07 lbs) and measure 11.2 cm (0′ 5″). They are a member of the Leporidae family (genus: Sylvilagus). An adult Eastern cottontail grows up to a size of 37.2 cm (1′ 3″).
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 eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) is a New World cottontail rabbit, a member of the family Leporidae. It is the most common rabbit species in North America.
Other animals of the family Leporidae
Eastern cottontail is a member of the Leporidae, as are these animals:
- Yunnan hare with 2 babies per pregnancy
- White-sided jackrabbit with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Robust cottontail raching a size of 39.4 cm (1′ 4″)
- Swamp rabbit with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Antelope jackrabbit with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Broom hare with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Snowshoe hare with 3 babies per pregnancy
- New England cottontail with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Hainan hare weighting around 1.52 kilograms (3.35 lbs)
- Japanese hare with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Eastern cottontail
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Kit fox
- Lesser capybara
- Townsend’s chipmunk
- Panamint chipmunk
- Field vole
- Sody’s tree rat
- Plateau pika
- Dsinezumi shrew
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat
- Mountain cottontail
Animals that get as old as a Eastern cottontail
Other animals that usually reach the age of 9 years:
- Cape fox with 10 years
- Greater musky fruit bat with 8 years
- Red-necked pademelon with 9 years
- Rafinesque’s big-eared bat with 10.08 years
- Grey-bellied squirrel with 9.5 years
- Jamaican coney with 8.25 years
- Asian small-clawed otter with 10.08 years
- Gray dorcopsis with 8 years
- Florida mouse with 7.33 years
- Philippine porcupine with 9.5 years
Animals with the same weight as a Eastern cottontail
What other animals weight around 1.21 kg (2.67 lbs)?
- Brown greater galago usually reaching 1.22 kgs (2.69 lbs)
- Spotted linsang usually reaching 1.14 kgs (2.51 lbs)
- Western quoll usually reaching 1.12 kgs (2.47 lbs)
- Giant golden-crowned flying fox usually reaching 1.09 kgs (2.4 lbs)
- Common kusimanse usually reaching 1.39 kgs (3.06 lbs)
- Malagasy giant rat usually reaching 1.18 kgs (2.6 lbs)
- Big-eared opossum usually reaching 1.11 kgs (2.45 lbs)
- Tapeti weighting 988 grams
- Southern three-banded armadillo usually reaching 1.32 kgs (2.91 lbs)
- Rusty-spotted cat usually reaching 1.42 kgs (3.13 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Eastern cottontail
Also reaching around 37.2 cm (1′ 3″) in size do these animals:
- Telefomin cuscus gets as big as 39.9 cm (1′ 4″)
- Malagasy giant rat gets as big as 30.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Groundhog gets as big as 41.4 cm (1′ 5″)
- Stein’s cuscus gets as big as 42.4 cm (1′ 5″)
- Spotted giant flying squirrel gets as big as 39.8 cm (1′ 4″)
- Tailless tenrec gets as big as 32.7 cm (1′ 1″)
- Wedge-capped capuchin gets as big as 40.4 cm (1′ 4″)
- African striped weasel gets as big as 30.4 cm (1′ 0″)
- Black-footed cat gets as big as 40.1 cm (1′ 4″)
- Eastern quoll gets as big as 33.3 cm (1′ 2″)