How many baby Merriam’s pocket gophers are in a litter?
A Merriam’s pocket gopher (Cratogeomys merriami) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 6 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 3.6 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Geomyidae family (genus: Cratogeomys). An adult Merriam’s pocket gopher grows up to a size of 19.2 cm (0′ 8″).
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 pocket gopher (Cratogeomys merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is endemic to Mexico, where it is found in the area of the Valley of Mexico and the Valley of Toluca at elevations from 1800 to 4000 m. Its favored habitats are the Zacatonal grassland and temperate pine-oak woodlands, as well as farmland and rangeland. Its karyotype has 2n = 36 and FN = 68.Until 2005, what are now considered the separate species C. fulvescens and C. perotensis were included within this taxon. They were split off due to clear molecular, chromosomal and morphological differences. All three species are part of the C. castanops species group.The species is named after American mammalogist Clinton Hart Merriam.Although its distribution is patchy, it is not thought to be threatened.
Other animals of the family Geomyidae
Merriam’s pocket gopher is a member of the Geomyidae, as are these animals:
- Central Texas pocket gopher weighting only 600 grams
- Texas pocket gopher with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Smoky pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Underwood’s pocket gopher weighting only 250 grams
- Southern pocket gopher with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Hispid pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Smoky pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Smoky pocket gopher with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Camas pocket gopher with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Knox Jones’s pocket gopher weighting only 172 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Merriam’s pocket gopher
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Ocelot
- Wroughton’s free-tailed bat
- Gerenuk
- Black and rufous elephant shrew
- Biak glider
- Molossops planirostris
- Indonesian short-nosed fruit bat
- Hamlyn’s monkey
- Tonkin snub-nosed monkey
- Striped bush squirrel
Animals with the same weight as a Merriam’s pocket gopher
What other animals weight around 419 grams (0.92 lbs)?
- Cotton-top tamarin weighting 463 grams
- Giant golden mole weighting 440 grams
- Prevost’s squirrel weighting 400 grams
- Bolivian tuco-tuco weighting 462 grams
- Red bush squirrel weighting 365 grams
- Brazilian yellow-toothed cavy weighting 450 grams
- Little red flying fox weighting 379 grams
- Natterer’s tuco-tuco weighting 400 grams
- Silky tuco-tuco weighting 400 grams
- Variegated squirrel weighting 485 grams