How many baby Eastern pygmy possums are in a litter?
A Eastern pygmy possum (Cercartetus nanus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 2.9 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Burramyidae family (genus: Cercartetus). An adult Eastern pygmy possum grows up to a size of 8.8 cm (0′ 4″).
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 pygmy possum (Cercartetus nanus) is a diprotodont marsupial of south-eastern Australia. Occurring from southern Queensland to eastern South Australia and also Tasmania, it is found in a range of habitats, including rainforest, sclerophyll forest, woodland and heath.
Other animals of the family Burramyidae
Eastern pygmy possum is a member of the Burramyidae, as are these animals:
- Mountain pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Tasmanian pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Long-tailed pygmy possum with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Western pygmy possum with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Eastern pygmy possum
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Chiriqui brown mouse
- Fat mouse
- Desmarest’s spiny pocket mouse
- Painted spiny pocket mouse
- Nyika rock rat
- Gray fox
- Thick-tailed three-toed jerboa
- Fat sand rat
- True’s shrew mole
- Nine-banded armadillo
Animals that get as old as a Eastern pygmy possum
Other animals that usually reach the age of 8 years:
- Lesser grison with 7.25 years
- Dice’s cottontail with 9 years
- Arctic hare with 7 years
- Island fox with 8 years
- Barbary ground squirrel with 9 years
- Pacarana with 9.33 years
- Grey-bellied squirrel with 9.5 years
- Indian gerbil with 7 years
- Black-tailed jackrabbit with 6.75 years
- Mongolian gazelle with 7 years
Animals with the same weight as a Eastern pygmy possum
What other animals weight around 27 grams (0.06 lbs)?
- Blanford’s fruit bat weighting 28 grams
- Abrothrix lanosus weighting 27 grams
- Crafty vesper mouse weighting 27 grams
- Tilda’s yellow-shouldered bat weighting 24 grams
- Lesser Wilfred’s mouse weighting 22 grams
- Deroo’s mouse weighting 32 grams
- Juliana’s golden mole weighting 22 grams
- Hill’s sheath-tailed bat weighting 22 grams
- Indomalayan pencil-tailed tree mouse weighting 23 grams
- Yellow-winged bat weighting 23 grams