How many baby Franklin’s ground squirrels are in a litter?
A Franklin’s ground squirrel (Spermophilus franklinii) usually gives birth to around 9 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 9 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 28 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 9 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 5.6 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Spermophilus). An adult Franklin’s ground squirrel grows up to a size of 24.5 cm (0′ 10″).
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.
Franklin’s ground squirrel (Poliocitellus franklinii) is a species of squirrel native to North America, and the only member of the genus Poliocitellus. Due to the destruction of prairie, the populations of Franklin’s ground squirrel have dwindled, approaching levels of concern. However, the species is prolific and locally abundant.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Franklin’s ground squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- White-tailed prairie dog with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Samar squirrel weighting only 225 grams
- Washington ground squirrel with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Red-tailed squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Least chipmunk with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Long-tailed ground squirrel with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Belding’s ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Southern Palawan tree squirrel raching a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Abert’s squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Franklin’s ground squirrel
Those animals also give birth to 9 babies at once:
- Ricefield rat
- Steppe polecat
- Texas antelope squirrel
- Ciscaucasian hamster
- Robinson’s mouse opossum
- Sikkim rat
- Turkish hamster
Animals with the same weight as a Franklin’s ground squirrel
What other animals weight around 458 grams (1.01 lbs)?
- Allen’s squirrel weighting 465 grams
- Checkered elephant shrew weighting 424 grams
- Gray-backed sportive lemur weighting 506 grams
- White-lipped tamarin weighting 509 grams
- King rat (animal) weighting 420 grams
- Colburn’s tuco-tuco weighting 400 grams
- Gilliard’s flying fox weighting 406 grams
- Natterer’s tuco-tuco weighting 400 grams
- Allen’s woodrat weighting 368 grams
- Short-tailed chinchilla weighting 499 grams
Animals with the same size as a Franklin’s ground squirrel
Also reaching around 24.5 cm (0′ 10″) in size do these animals:
- Soft-spined Atlantic spiny rat gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Conover’s tuco-tuco gets as big as 25.8 cm (0′ 11″)
- Greater grison gets as big as 25.7 cm (0′ 11″)
- Common echymipera gets as big as 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Ring-tailed ground squirrel gets as big as 22.1 cm (0′ 9″)
- Shrew-faced squirrel gets as big as 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Black-spined Atlantic tree-rat gets as big as 21.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Carruther’s mountain squirrel gets as big as 22.9 cm (0′ 10″)
- Sulawesi flying fox gets as big as 20.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Dusky-footed woodrat gets as big as 20.8 cm (0′ 9″)