How many baby Hoary marmots are in a litter?
A Hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 30 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 2.6 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Marmota). An adult Hoary marmot grows up to a size of 40.6 cm (1′ 4″).
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 hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) is a species of marmot that inhabits the mountains of northwest North America. Hoary marmots live near the tree line on slopes with grasses and forbs to eat and rocky areas for cover.It is the largest North American ground squirrel and is often nicknamed “the whistler” for its high-pitched warning issued to alert other members of the colony to possible danger. The animals are sometimes called “whistle pigs”. Whistler, British Columbia, originally London Mountain because of its heavy fogs and rain, was renamed after these animals to help make it more marketable as a resort. The closest relatives of the species are the yellow-bellied, Olympic, and Vancouver Island marmots, although the exact relationships are unclear.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Hoary marmot is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Prevost’s squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Yellow-throated squirrel weighting only 803 grams
- Maritime striped squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Guayaquil squirrel weighting only 433 grams
- Striped bush squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Himalayan striped squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Long-eared chipmunk with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Menzbier’s marmot with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Thomas’s flying squirrel weighting around 1.43 kilograms (3.15 lbs)
- Belding’s ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Hoary marmot
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Australian swamp rat
- Olympic marmot
- Siberian zokor
- California pocket mouse
- North African gerbil
- Bank vole
- African groove-toothed rat
- Lataste’s gerbil
- Kellen’s dormouse
- Southern big-eared mouse
Animals with the same weight as a Hoary marmot
What other animals weight around 2.25 kg (4.96 lbs)?
- Hamlyn’s monkey usually reaching 2.31 kgs (5.09 lbs)
- Small-toothed palm civet usually reaching 2.32 kgs (5.11 lbs)
- Sanford’s brown lemur usually reaching 2.39 kgs (5.27 lbs)
- Abyssinian hare usually reaching 2.02 kgs (4.45 lbs)
- Virginia opossum usually reaching 2.46 kgs (5.42 lbs)
- Jackson’s mongoose usually reaching 2.5 kgs (5.51 lbs)
- Johnston’s genet usually reaching 2.23 kgs (4.92 lbs)
- Bengal fox usually reaching 2.51 kgs (5.53 lbs)
- Red lemur usually reaching 2.39 kgs (5.27 lbs)
- Meller’s mongoose usually reaching 2.24 kgs (4.94 lbs)