How many baby Eurasian water shrews are in a litter?
A Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens) usually gives birth to around 6 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 12 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 21 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 9 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 3 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Neomys). An adult Eurasian water shrew grows up to a size of 8.1 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 Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens), known in the United Kingdom as the water shrew, is a relatively large shrew, up to 10 cm (4 in) long, with a tail up to three-quarters as long again. It has short, dark fur, often with a few white tufts, a white belly, and a few stiff hairs around the feet and tail. It lives close to fresh water, hunting aquatic prey in the water and nearby. Its fur traps bubbles of air in the water which greatly aids its buoyancy, but requires it to anchor itself to remain underwater for more than the briefest of dives.Like many shrews, the water shrew has venomous saliva, making it one of the few venomous mammals, although it is not able to puncture the skin of large animals, nor that of humans. Highly territorial, it lives a solitary life and is found throughout the northern part of Europe and Asia, from Britain to Korea.
Other animals of the family Soricidae
Eurasian water shrew is a member of the Soricidae, as are these animals:
- Bicolored musk shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Wandering small-eared shrew weighting only 11 grams
- Tundra shrew with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Negros shrew weighting only 11 grams
- Greater red musk shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Savanna shrew weighting only 10 grams
- Lesser dwarf shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Climbing shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Bicolored shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Baird’s shrew weighting only 8 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Eurasian water shrew
Those animals also give birth to 6 babies at once:
- Seven-banded armadillo
- Maximowicz’s vole
- European ground squirrel
- Townsend’s pocket gopher
- California ground squirrel
- New Guinean quoll
- Bobak marmot
- Roborovski dwarf hamster
- Brown antechinus
- Eurasian pygmy shrew
Animals that get as old as a Eurasian water shrew
Other animals that usually reach the age of 3 years:
- Long-tailed pocket mouse with 2.5 years
- Brown antechinus with 3 years
- White-footed dunnart with 2.5 years
- Fat-tailed false antechinus with 3 years
- Small Japanese mole with 3.5 years
- Dibatag with 3 years
- Sminthopsis laniger with 3.25 years
- Northern pygmy mouse with 3.25 years
- Cape mole-rat with 3 years
- Narrow-nosed planigale with 3 years
Animals with the same weight as a Eurasian water shrew
What other animals weight around 15 grams (0.03 lbs)?
- Halcyon horseshoe bat weighting 18 grams
- Ghost-faced bat weighting 16 grams
- Flat-skulled shrew weighting 13 grams
- Botta’s serotine weighting 15 grams
- Abrothrix andinus weighting 18 grams
- Rufous mouse opossum weighting 14 grams
- Black-capped fruit bat weighting 17 grams
- Handley’s tailless bat weighting 17 grams
- Japanese shrew mole weighting 18 grams
- Roberts’s flat-headed bat weighting 14 grams
Animals with the same size as a Eurasian water shrew
Also reaching around 8.1 cm (0′ 4″) in size do these animals:
- Van Zyl’s golden mole gets as big as 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Wood mouse gets as big as 8.7 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mexican long-tongued bat gets as big as 6.6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Desert dormouse gets as big as 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- North American least shrew gets as big as 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Small pencil-tailed tree mouse gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Black-eared squirrel gets as big as 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Savanna path shrew gets as big as 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Hoary bat gets as big as 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Margarita Island kangaroo rat gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)