How many baby Japanese shrew moles are in a litter?
A Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 36 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 20 grams (0.04 lbs) and measure 12.9 cm (0′ 6″). They are a member of the Talpidae family (genus: Urotrichus). An adult Japanese shrew mole grows up to a size of 9 cm (0′ 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 Japanese shrew mole or himizu (ヒミズ) (Urotrichus talpoides) is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to Japan and is found on Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Awaji Island, Shodo Island, Oki Islands, Tsushima Island, Goto Islands, Mishima Island (Yamaguchi Prefecture), and Awashima Island (Niigata Prefecture), but is absent from Hokkaido, which is north of Blakiston’s Line. It is one of three Urotrichini and it is the only species in the genus Urotrichus. It is common between sea level and approximately 2,000 m.Heinrich Bürger, assistant of Philipp Franz von Siebold, collected specimens of Urotrichus talpoides near Dejima between 1824 and 1826, found lying dead in the fields, which were ultimately described by Temminck after shipping them to the Netherlands.
Other animals of the family Talpidae
Japanese shrew mole is a member of the Talpidae, as are these animals:
- Père David’s mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- American shrew mole with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Blind mole weighting only 70 grams
- Kobe mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Père David’s mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Townsend’s mole with 1 babies per pregnancy
- European mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Small Japanese mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Large mole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Himalayan mole becoming 1.5 years old
Animals that share a litter size with Japanese shrew mole
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Fisher (animal)
- Thick-tailed three-toed jerboa
- Russian desman
- Brandt’s hedgehog
- Woodland dormouse
- Coast mole
- Greater cane rat
- Transandinomys bolivaris
- Egyptian mongoose
- Lesser hamster-rat
Animals that get as old as a Japanese shrew mole
Other animals that usually reach the age of 3.5 years:
- Field vole with 3.25 years
- Northern pygmy mouse with 3.25 years
- North African elephant shrew with 3 years
- Banner-tailed kangaroo rat with 3 years
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with 3.75 years
- Aders’s duiker with 4 years
- Hylaeamys megacephalus with 3.75 years
- Coast mole with 3 years
- Great Basin pocket mouse with 4 years
- Lemur-like ringtail possum with 4 years
Animals with the same weight as a Japanese shrew mole
What other animals weight around 18 grams (0.04 lbs)?
- Algerian mouse weighting 16 grams
- Moss-forest blossom bat weighting 20 grams
- Nigerian free-tailed bat weighting 20 grams
- Eastern shrew mouse weighting 16 grams
- Tent-making bat weighting 16 grams
- Western red-backed vole weighting 18 grams
- Pygmy fruit bat weighting 15 grams
- Highland yellow-shouldered bat weighting 21 grams
- Lesser short-tailed gerbil weighting 17 grams
- Chestnut dunnart weighting 16 grams
Animals with the same size as a Japanese shrew mole
Also reaching around 9 cm (0′ 4″) in size do these animals:
- Forest dormouse gets as big as 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Southern bog lemming gets as big as 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Common fat-tailed mouse opossum gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Santa Cruz mouse gets as big as 9.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Himalayan striped squirrel gets as big as 10.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Silky mouse gets as big as 8.3 cm (0′ 4″)
- Western jumping mouse gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Pinheiro’s slender opossum gets as big as 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Four-striped grass mouse gets as big as 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Slender harvest mouse gets as big as 7.2 cm (0′ 3″)