How many baby Gray four-eyed opossums are in a litter?
A Gray four-eyed opossum (Philander opossum) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 12 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 6.9 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Didelphidae family (genus: Philander). An adult Gray four-eyed opossum grows up to a size of 26.5 cm (0′ 11″).
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 gray four-eyed opossum (Philander opossum) is an opossum species from Central and South America, ranging from southern Mexico to Peru, Bolivia and southwestern Brazil, at altitudes from sea level to 1600 m, but generally below 1,000 metres (3,300 ft). Its habitats include primary, secondary and disturbed forest. It is one of many opossum species in the order Didelphimorphia and the family Didelphidae.
Other animals of the family Didelphidae
Gray four-eyed opossum is a member of the Didelphidae, as are these animals:
- Brown-eared woolly opossum becoming 5 years old
- Bishop’s slender opossum raching a size of 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Common opossum with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum weighting only 34 grams
- Emilia’s gracile opossum weighting only 7 grams
- Elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum with 10 babies per pregnancy
- Common fat-tailed mouse opossum weighting only 28 grams
- Bushy-tailed opossum weighting only 114 grams
- Gray short-tailed opossum with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Long-nosed short-tailed opossum weighting only 765 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Gray four-eyed opossum
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Sundevall’s jird
- Dice’s cottontail
- Eastern heather vole
- Dsinezumi shrew
- Bush dog
- Lesser short-tailed gerbil
- Senegal gerbil
- Gray-tailed vole
- El Carrizo deer mouse
- Bushveld gerbil
Animals that get as old as a Gray four-eyed opossum
Other animals that usually reach the age of 3.5 years:
- Giant golden mole with 4 years
- Forest dormouse with 4 years
- Bower’s white-toothed rat with 2.83 years
- Allen’s big-eared bat with 3.17 years
- Yellow-footed antechinus with 3.5 years
- Southwestern water vole with 3.5 years
- Brazilian spiny tree-rat with 3.08 years
- Japanese mountain mole with 3 years
- Bush rat with 3.42 years
- Northern pocket gopher with 3.75 years
Animals with the same weight as a Gray four-eyed opossum
What other animals weight around 426 grams (0.94 lbs)?
- Greater dwarf lemur weighting 447 grams
- Short-tailed chinchilla weighting 499 grams
- Ring-tailed ground squirrel weighting 500 grams
- Guaira spiny rat weighting 349 grams
- White-headed marmoset weighting 342 grams
- Broad-faced potoroo weighting 499 grams
- King rat (animal) weighting 420 grams
- Black-headed marmoset weighting 401 grams
- Desert hedgehog weighting 396 grams
- Southern Amazon red squirrel weighting 403 grams
Animals with the same size as a Gray four-eyed opossum
Also reaching around 26.5 cm (0′ 11″) in size do these animals:
- European hedgehog gets as big as 23.7 cm (0′ 10″)
- Cotton-top tamarin gets as big as 24 cm (0′ 10″)
- Red slender loris gets as big as 22.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Striped possum gets as big as 25.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Isabel naked-tailed rat gets as big as 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Black jackrabbit gets as big as 23.9 cm (0′ 10″)
- Western white-eared giant rat gets as big as 31 cm (1′ 1″)
- Utah prairie dog gets as big as 28.8 cm (1′ 0″)
- Western gray squirrel gets as big as 29.4 cm (1′ 0″)
- Red-handed tamarin gets as big as 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)