How many baby European snow voles are in a litter?
A European snow vole (Chionomys nivalis) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 10 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 7.6 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Chionomys). An adult European snow vole grows up to a size of 30.5 cm (1′ 1″).
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 European snow vole or snow vole (Chionomys nivalis, previously Arvicola nivalis and Microtus nivalis) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It has dense, pale grey fur and a pale-coloured tail and can reach about 14 cm (5.5 in) long, with a tail which is 7 cm long.The European snow vole is native to mountainous parts of southern and eastern Europe and southwestern Asia. It is found in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennine Mountains, the Carpathian Mountains, the Montesinho mountains, the higher regions of the Balkans and Asia Minor. Its habitat is rocky areas and screes, mostly above the tree line. It is mainly a solitary animal and lives under boulders and in crevices and tunnels among rocks and scree.
Other animals of the family Muridae
European snow vole is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Northern grass mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Guinean gerbil weighting only 102 grams
- Oligoryzomys flavescens with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Mexican harvest mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Crab-eating rat weighting only 66 grams
- Smith’s vole weighting only 35 grams
- Korean field mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Giant bushy-tailed cloud rat raching a size of 37.1 cm (1′ 3″)
- Kalinowski’s Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
- Tiny fat mouse weighting only 5 grams
Animals that share a litter size with European snow vole
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Merriam’s kangaroo rat
- Wolverine
- Duthie’s golden mole
- White-tailed mongoose
- Savi’s pipistrelle
- Greenish yellow bat
- Silvery mole-rat
- Golden-headed lion tamarin
- Pied tamarin
- Babault’s mouse shrew
Animals with the same weight as a European snow vole
What other animals weight around 48 grams (0.11 lbs)?
- Greater bulldog bat weighting 45 grams
- Cairo spiny mouse weighting 41 grams
- Melanomys caliginosus weighting 41 grams
- Haggard’s leaf-eared mouse weighting 42 grams
- Jentink’s flying squirrel weighting 56 grams
- Little collared fruit bat weighting 44 grams
- Venezuelan fish-eating rat weighting 47 grams
- Hylaeamys megacephalus weighting 57 grams
- Murree vole weighting 52 grams
- Lesser tree mouse weighting 45 grams