How many baby Meadow voles are in a litter?
A Meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) 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 21 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 3.2 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Microtus). An adult Meadow vole grows up to a size of 11.8 cm (0′ 5″).
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 meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), sometimes called the field mouse or meadow mouse, is a North American vole found across Canada, Alaska and the northern United States. Its range extends farther south along the Atlantic coast. One subspecies, the Florida salt marsh vole (M. p. dukecampbelli), is found in Florida, and is classified as endangered. Previously it was also found in Chihuahua, Mexico, but has not been recorded since 1998.The meadow vole is active year-round, usually at night. It also digs burrows, where it stores food for the winter and females give birth to their young. Although these animals tend to live close together, they are aggressive towards one another. This is particularly evident in males during the breeding season. They can cause damage to fruit trees, garden plants, and commercial grain crops.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Meadow vole is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Ryukyu mouse weighting only 14 grams
- Lesser tree mouse with 1 babies per pregnancy
- House mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Grassland mosaic-tailed rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Polynesian rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Thomas’s pine vole with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Sundevall’s jird with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Pocock’s highland rat raching a size of 12.8 cm (0′ 6″)
- Small vesper mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Tropical vlei rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Meadow vole
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Wood lemming
- Star-nosed mole
- Northern grass mouse
- Siberian large-toothed shrew
- Piebald shrew
- Persian jird
- Grey red-backed vole
- Northern gracile opossum
- Four-striped grass mouse
- Social vole
Animals that get as old as a Meadow vole
Other animals that usually reach the age of 0.92 years:
- Olive grass mouse with 1 years
- Eastern rock elephant shrew with 1.08 years
- Myosorex varius with 1 years
- Olive grass mouse with 1 years
- Eligmodontia typus with 0.75 years
- Wood lemming with 1 years
- Water vole (North America) with 0.75 years
- Yellow-sided opossum with 1 years
- Anderson’s four-eyed opossum with 0.75 years
- Northern red-sided opossum with 1 years
Animals with the same weight as a Meadow vole
What other animals weight around 42 grams (0.09 lbs)?
- Ammodile weighting 50 grams
- El Carrizo deer mouse weighting 40 grams
- Mountain tube-nosed fruit bat weighting 43 grams
- North African elephant shrew weighting 43 grams
- Hylaeamys oniscus weighting 49 grams
- Temchuk’s bolo mouse weighting 47 grams
- Great stripe-faced bat weighting 35 grams
- Neuquén grass mouse weighting 42 grams
- Hispid pocket mouse weighting 35 grams
- Salvin’s spiny pocket mouse weighting 42 grams
Animals with the same size as a Meadow vole
Also reaching around 11.8 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Pinheiro’s slender opossum gets as big as 10.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Western chestnut mouse gets as big as 10.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Uinta chipmunk gets as big as 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mountain spiny pocket mouse gets as big as 11 cm (0′ 5″)
- Moss-forest rat gets as big as 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mexican spiny pocket mouse gets as big as 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Gunning’s golden mole gets as big as 12.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Short-snouted elephant shrew gets as big as 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Golden spiny mouse gets as big as 11.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- European mole gets as big as 12.9 cm (0′ 6″)