How many baby Merriam’s kangaroo rats are in a litter?
A Merriam’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys merriami) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 2 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 30 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 27.5 cm (0′ 11″). They are a member of the Heteromyidae family (genus: Dipodomys). An adult Merriam’s kangaroo rat grows up to a size of 4.9 cm (0′ 2″).
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.
Merriam’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. The species name commemorates Clinton Hart Merriam.
Other animals of the family Heteromyidae
Merriam’s kangaroo rat is a member of the Heteromyidae, as are these animals:
- San Joaquin pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Big-eared kangaroo rat weighting only 78 grams
- Bailey’s pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- California pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Southern spiny pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Arizona pocket mouse weighting only 11 grams
- San José Island kangaroo rat weighting only 38 grams
- Jaliscan spiny pocket mouse weighting only 65 grams
- Olive-backed pocket mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Little pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Merriam’s kangaroo rat
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Common mole-rat
- Peters’s striped mouse
- Hoary bat
- Chiruromys lamia
- Southern pygmy mouse
- Spotted-necked otter
- Banana climbing mouse
- Dobson’s shrew tenrec
- Northern yellow bat
- Manchurian hare
Animals that get as old as a Merriam’s kangaroo rat
Other animals that usually reach the age of 2 years:
- Vagrant shrew with 2.08 years
- Tundra vole with 1.75 years
- Müller’s giant Sunda rat with 2 years
- Malabar spiny dormouse with 1.67 years
- Cinnamon antechinus with 2 years
- Grant’s golden mole with 2 years
- Cinereus shrew with 1.92 years
- Ningbing false antechinus with 2 years
- Southern red-backed vole with 1.67 years
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat with 2.25 years
Animals with the same weight as a Merriam’s kangaroo rat
What other animals weight around 37 grams (0.08 lbs)?
- Guatemalan vole weighting 42 grams
- Montane wood mouse weighting 36 grams
- Smith’s vole weighting 34 grams
- Grant’s rock mouse weighting 40 grams
- Cinnamon dog-faced bat weighting 35 grams
- Southern vole weighting 35 grams
- Montane fish-eating rat weighting 39 grams
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum weighting 34 grams
- Akodon sylvanus weighting 39 grams
- Dalton’s mouse weighting 34 grams
Animals with the same size as a Merriam’s kangaroo rat
Also reaching around 4.9 cm (0′ 2″) in size do these animals:
- Merriam’s pocket mouse gets as big as 5.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Ornate shrew gets as big as 4.9 cm (0′ 2″)
- Trident bat gets as big as 5.6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Daubenton’s bat gets as big as 4.4 cm (0′ 2″)
- Slender shrew gets as big as 5.3 cm (0′ 3″)
- Rufous trident bat gets as big as 4.4 cm (0′ 2″)
- Woermann’s bat gets as big as 4 cm (0′ 2″)
- Pallas’s long-tongued bat gets as big as 4.8 cm (0′ 2″)
- Fat mouse gets as big as 5.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Pygmy fruit-eating bat gets as big as 5.5 cm (0′ 3″)