How many baby Greater cane rats are in a litter?
A Greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) 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 125 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 119 grams (0.26 lbs) and measure 36.8 cm (1′ 3″). They are a member of the Thryonomyidae family (genus: Thryonomys). An adult Greater cane rat grows up to a size of 18.4 cm (0′ 8″).
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 greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) is one of two species of cane rats, a small family of African hystricognath rodents. The cane rat lives by reed-beds and riverbanks in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cane rats can grow to nearly 60 cm (2.0 ft) in length and weigh a little less than 8.5 kg (19 lb). It has rounded ears, a short nose, and coarse bristly hair. Its forefeet are smaller than its hind feet, each with three toes.Cane rats live in small groups led by a single male. They are nocturnal and make nests from grasses or burrow underground. Individuals of the species may live in excess of four years. If frightened, they grunt and run towards water. So far, their conservation status is lower risk.As humans expanded into the cane rat’s native habitats, the cane rats likewise expanded from their native reeds into the plantations, particularly the sugar cane plantations from which they derive their name. Their tendency to adopt plantations as habitat, where they feed on agricultural crops such as maize, wheat, sugar-cane and cassava, often earns them the label of agricultural pest. However, the peoples of the region also utilize the cane rat as a food source (as bushmeat), considering the meat a delicacy. Consequently, grasscutters (as they are often called in Ghana, Nigeria and other regions of West Africa) are beginning to be raised in cages for sale.
Other animals of the family Thryonomyidae
Greater cane rat is a member of the Thryonomyidae, as are these animals:
- Lesser cane rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Greater cane rat
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Long-clawed mole vole
- Little native mouse
- Desert hedgehog
- Fat sand rat
- Deroo’s mouse
- Sable
- Brants’s climbing mouse
- Gambian pouched rat
- Zacatecan deer mouse
- Red river hog
Animals that get as old as a Greater cane rat
Other animals that usually reach the age of 4.25 years:
- Cave nectar bat with 5 years
- Northern birch mouse with 4 years
- Forest giant squirrel with 5.08 years
- Yellow-necked mouse with 4 years
- Northern common cuscus with 4 years
- Steppe pika with 4 years
- Mexican funnel-eared bat with 4.75 years
- Common planigale with 4 years
- Yellow-faced pocket gopher with 4.67 years
- Japanese shrew mole with 3.5 years
Animals with the same weight as a Greater cane rat
What other animals weight around 3.75 kg (8.27 lbs)?
- Gray fox usually reaching 3.83 kgs (8.44 lbs)
- Golden-crowned sifaka usually reaching 3.53 kgs (7.78 lbs)
- Western tree hyrax usually reaching 3.18 kgs (7.01 lbs)
- Sechuran fox usually reaching 4.23 kgs (9.33 lbs)
- Red ruffed lemur usually reaching 3.87 kgs (8.53 lbs)
- Long-tailed marmot usually reaching 4.35 kgs (9.59 lbs)
- Quokka usually reaching 3.03 kgs (6.68 lbs)
- Parma wallaby usually reaching 4.16 kgs (9.17 lbs)
- Red-tailed monkey usually reaching 3.54 kgs (7.8 lbs)
- Colombian white-faced capuchin usually reaching 3.01 kgs (6.64 lbs)