How many baby Malagasy giant rats are in a litter?
A Malagasy giant rat (Hypogeomys antimena) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 8 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 5.5 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Hypogeomys). An adult Malagasy giant rat grows up to a size of 30.6 cm (1′ 1″).
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 Malagasy giant rat (Hypogeomys antimena), also known as the votsotsa or votsovotsa, is a nesomyid rodent found only in the Menabe region of Madagascar. It is an endangered species due to habitat loss, slow reproduction, and limited range (200 square kilometres north of Morondava, between the rivers Tomitsy and Tsiribihina) Pairs are monogamous and females bear only one or two young per year. It is the only extant species in the genus Hypogeomys; another species, Hypogeomys australis, is known from subfossil remains a few thousand years old.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Malagasy giant rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Thomas’s water mouse weighting only 40 grams
- Arizona woodrat weighting only 200 grams
- Common vole with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Shaw Mayer’s brush mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Nephelomys auriventer weighting only 60 grams
- Malayan field rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Harrington’s rat weighting only 90 grams
- Plateau mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Oecomys cleberi weighting only 73 grams
- Cochabamba grass mouse weighting only 34 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Malagasy giant rat
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Baiji
- Greater musky fruit bat
- Common sheath-tailed bat
- Baird’s tapir
- Egyptian free-tailed bat
- Raffray’s bandicoot
- Charming thicket rat
- Van Gelder’s bat
- Niceforo’s big-eared bat
- Grant’s forest shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Malagasy giant rat
What other animals weight around 1.18 kg (2.6 lbs)?
- Tres Marias rabbit weighting 964 grams
- Montane guinea pig usually reaching 1 kgs (2.2 lbs)
- Greater grison usually reaching 1.4 kgs (3.09 lbs)
- Indian giant squirrel usually reaching 1.06 kgs (2.34 lbs)
- Green acouchi weighting 966 grams
- Rothschild’s woolly rat usually reaching 1.16 kgs (2.56 lbs)
- Common opossum usually reaching 1.14 kgs (2.51 lbs)
- Reclusive ringtail possum usually reaching 1.4 kgs (3.09 lbs)
- Llanos long-nosed armadillo usually reaching 1.15 kgs (2.54 lbs)
- Northern viscacha usually reaching 1.22 kgs (2.69 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Malagasy giant rat
Also reaching around 30.6 cm (1′ 1″) in size do these animals:
- Great flying fox gets as big as 27.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- Bagobo rat gets as big as 28.9 cm (1′ 0″)
- Red-bellied titi gets as big as 35.8 cm (1′ 3″)
- Painted ringtail possum gets as big as 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Siberian weasel gets as big as 30.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Poncelet’s giant rat gets as big as 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Giant otter shrew gets as big as 32 cm (1′ 1″)
- Florida naked-tailed rat gets as big as 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- Western barred bandicoot gets as big as 30 cm (1′ 0″)
- Giant Atlantic tree-rat gets as big as 28.1 cm (1′ 0″)