How many baby Gambian pouched rats are in a litter?
A Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 31 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 22 grams (0.05 lbs) and measure 7.8 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Cricetomys). An adult Gambian pouched rat grows up to a size of 36.3 cm (1′ 3″).
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 Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus), also known as the African giant pouched rat, is a nocturnal pouched rat of the giant pouched rat genus Cricetomys, and is among the largest muroids in the world, growing up to about 0.9 metres (3 ft) long including their tail which makes up half their length. It is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging geographically from Senegal to Kenya and from Angola to Mozambique (although it is absent from much of the DR Congo, where Emin’s pouched rat is present) and in altitude from sea level to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).The animals are sometimes kept as pets, but some have escaped from captivity and become an invasive species in Florida. The CDC and FDA in the US now ban the importation of this species. It is also blamed for an outbreak of monkeypox.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Gambian pouched rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Euryoryzomys macconnelli weighting only 62 grams
- Southern African vlei rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Painted big-eared mouse weighting only 51 grams
- Oryzomys couesi with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Short-tailed bandicoot rat with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Fossorial giant rat weighting only 168 grams
- Mongolian hamster with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Golden spiny mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Fat-tailed gerbil with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Northern bog lemming with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Gambian pouched rat
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Wagner’s gerbil
- Yucatan deer mouse
- Rock vole
- Juniper vole
- Savanna gerbil
- Geoxus valdivianus
- Darien harvest mouse
- Large vlei rat
- Ungava collared lemming
- White-tailed rat
Animals with the same weight as a Gambian pouched rat
What other animals weight around 1.27 kg (2.8 lbs)?
- Llanos long-nosed armadillo usually reaching 1.15 kgs (2.54 lbs)
- Telefomin cuscus usually reaching 1.44 kgs (3.17 lbs)
- Rothschild’s cuscus usually reaching 1.37 kgs (3.02 lbs)
- Short-tailed mongoose usually reaching 1.4 kgs (3.09 lbs)
- Servaline genet usually reaching 1.24 kgs (2.73 lbs)
- Red and white giant flying squirrel usually reaching 1.5 kgs (3.31 lbs)
- Philippine flying lemur usually reaching 1.25 kgs (2.76 lbs)
- Banded palm civet usually reaching 1.27 kgs (2.8 lbs)
- Coppery titi usually reaching 1.12 kgs (2.47 lbs)
- Indian giant squirrel usually reaching 1.06 kgs (2.34 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Gambian pouched rat
Also reaching around 36.3 cm (1′ 3″) in size do these animals:
- Wedge-capped capuchin gets as big as 40.4 cm (1′ 4″)
- Greater bilby gets as big as 37.5 cm (1′ 3″)
- Northern viscacha gets as big as 34.2 cm (1′ 2″)
- Lesser grison gets as big as 42.4 cm (1′ 5″)
- Western gray squirrel gets as big as 29.4 cm (1′ 0″)
- Steppe polecat gets as big as 43.2 cm (1′ 6″)
- Siberian weasel gets as big as 30.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Bahamian hutia gets as big as 39.5 cm (1′ 4″)
- Selous’s mongoose gets as big as 42.8 cm (1′ 5″)
- Subalpine woolly rat gets as big as 41.7 cm (1′ 5″)