How many baby Hispid cotton rats are in a litter?
A Hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 10 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 27 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 6 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 1.6 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Sigmodon). An adult Hispid cotton rat grows up to a size of 16.7 cm (0′ 7″).
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 hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is a rodent species long thought to occur in parts of South America, Central America, and southern North America. However, recent taxonomic revisions, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, have split this widely distributed species into three separate species (S. hispidus, S. toltecus, and S. hirsutus). The southern edge of the S. hispidus distribution is likely near the Rio Grande, where it meets the northern distribution of S. toltecus (formerly S. h. toltecus). The northern extent of S. hispidus distribution is to the Platte River in Nebraska and from Arizona to Virginia. Adult size is total length 202–340 mm (7.9–13 in); tail 87–122 mm (3.4-4.8 in), frequently broken or stubbed; hind foot 29–35 mm (1-1.3 in); ear 16–20 mm (0.6-0.9 in); mass 50-250 g (1.7-9 oz). They have been used as laboratory animals.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Hispid cotton rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Senegal gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Beach vole with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Spinifex hopping mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Rakali with 3 babies per pregnancy
- White-footed vole with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Wilson’s spiny mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Cutch rat with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Unicolored Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
- Cozumel harvest mouse weighting only 20 grams
- Eastern chestnut mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Hispid cotton rat
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Rock dormouse
- Uinta ground squirrel
- Western quoll
- Pale field rat
- Reed vole
- Black-capped marmot
- Gansu shrew
- Shaw’s jird
- Spectacled dormouse
- Western jumping mouse
Animals that get as old as a Hispid cotton rat
Other animals that usually reach the age of 5.17 years:
- White-bellied duiker with 5.25 years
- Greater bulldog bat with 5.75 years
- Bank vole with 4.83 years
- Southeastern myotis with 6 years
- Abbott’s duiker with 5.42 years
- Hazel dormouse with 6 years
- Stripe-faced dunnart with 4.83 years
- Long-tailed dunnart with 5 years
- Cave nectar bat with 5 years
- Bank vole with 4.83 years
Animals with the same weight as a Hispid cotton rat
What other animals weight around 111 grams (0.24 lbs)?
- Betsileo short-tailed rat weighting 93 grams
- Thomas’s bushbaby weighting 117 grams
- Australian swamp rat weighting 106 grams
- Isarog shrew-rat weighting 122 grams
- Atlantic Forest climbing mouse weighting 100 grams
- Dusky spiny tree-rat weighting 108 grams
- Narrow-striped marsupial shrew weighting 124 grams
- European water vole weighting 120 grams
- Highveld gerbil weighting 89 grams
- Lady Burton’s rope squirrel weighting 109 grams
Animals with the same size as a Hispid cotton rat
Also reaching around 16.7 cm (0′ 7″) in size do these animals:
- Large New Guinea spiny rat gets as big as 19.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Panniet naked-backed fruit bat gets as big as 18.6 cm (0′ 8″)
- Texas pocket gopher gets as big as 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Edible dormouse gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Nelson’s spiny pocket mouse gets as big as 15.8 cm (0′ 7″)
- Luzon short-nosed rat gets as big as 15.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- White-bellied mosaic-tailed rat gets as big as 15.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- Spotted ground squirrel gets as big as 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Mountain spiny rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Collared pika gets as big as 18.8 cm (0′ 8″)