How many baby Forest dormouses are in a litter?
A Forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 24 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 4 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Myoxidae family (genus: Dryomys). An adult Forest dormouse grows up to a size of 10.5 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 forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) is a species of rodent in the family Gliridae found in eastern Europe, the Balkans and parts of western Central Asia. It is categorized as being of least concern in the IUCN List of Threatened Species due to its wide range and stable population trend. Forest dormice have a diploid count (2n) of 48 chromosomes. Even though this species lives in a variety of geographic locations, its greatest population density is in the forests of central Moldova, in Transcaucasia, and in the mountains of Central Asia. In most other locations, population density of this species is rather low. Population density is dependent on many factors. But the main features that this species depends on for choosing a location are the presence of the appropriate food sources as well as good foliage that can be used for a habitat. The reason why the forests in central Moldova have the highest population density is they provide the largest diversity of food sources which are available throughout the year. This location also provides the best type of foliage for the forest dormice to build their nests as well as swing from branches. The combination of both of these aspects allows for this species to have its highest needs met. Therefore, during mating season they produce offspring who also stay in the same general area when they mature. It makes sense not to move from an area if it is providing for your most basic needs.The common name for Eliomys is the garden dormouse. Dryomys are often compared to Eliomys as they have many similarities. However, Dryomys is smaller in size. Two more differences between the two are the braincase for Dryomys is more rounded and the auditory bullae is smaller than that of Eliomys. In addition, their tails are slightly different. The Dryomys’s tail is more uniform in color than that of Eliomys. The forest dormouse competes in artificial and natural nests with hazel dormice, fat dormice, and birds. Its biggest competitors are those species which eat similar types of food and who live in the same kind of habitat.
Other animals of the family Myoxidae
Forest dormouse is a member of the Myoxidae, as are these animals:
- Graphiurus hueti with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Asian garden dormouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Kellen’s dormouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Kellen’s dormouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Spectacled dormouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Chinese dormouse weighting only 31 grams
- Garden dormouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Christy’s dormouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Woolly dormouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Japanese dormouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Forest dormouse
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Desert hedgehog
- Mesquite mouse
- Vancouver Island marmot
- Desert cottontail
- Water deer
- Irenomys
- Slender squirrel
- Crab-eating fox
- Molina’s grass mouse
- Namaqua dune mole-rat
Animals that get as old as a Forest dormouse
Other animals that usually reach the age of 4 years:
- Greater cane rat with 4.25 years
- Southwestern water vole with 3.5 years
- Sminthopsis laniger with 3.25 years
- Raffray’s bandicoot with 3.25 years
- Mexican funnel-eared bat with 4.75 years
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with 3.75 years
- Lesser bamboo rat with 3.67 years
- Small Japanese mole with 3.5 years
- Golden-rumped elephant shrew with 4 years
- Great gerbil with 4 years
Animals with the same weight as a Forest dormouse
What other animals weight around 29 grams (0.06 lbs)?
- Pearson’s chaco mouse weighting 25 grams
- Madagascan large free-tailed bat weighting 33 grams
- Panama slender opossum weighting 29 grams
- Anderson’s gerbil weighting 31 grams
- Large-eared free-tailed bat weighting 34 grams
- Hairy-footed gerbil weighting 25 grams
- Thespian grass mouse weighting 24 grams
- Winter white dwarf hamster weighting 30 grams
- Chinese dormouse weighting 31 grams
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum weighting 34 grams
Animals with the same size as a Forest dormouse
Also reaching around 10.5 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Narrow-skulled pocket mouse gets as big as 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Black-eared squirrel gets as big as 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Least forest mouse gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Greater big-footed mouse gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Chinese water shrew gets as big as 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Dian’s tarsier gets as big as 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Black-tailed dasyure gets as big as 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Northern red-backed vole gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Northern short-tailed shrew gets as big as 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mindanao shrew-rat gets as big as 9 cm (0′ 4″)