How many baby Merriam’s pocket mouses are in a litter?
A Merriam’s pocket mouse (Perognathus merriami) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 1.3 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Heteromyidae family (genus: Perognathus). An adult Merriam’s pocket mouse grows up to a size of 5.8 cm (0′ 3″).
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 mouse (Perognathus merriami) is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is found in northeast Mexico and New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the United States. Its habitat is shortgrass prairie, desert areas with scrub and arid shrubland. The species is named to honor Clinton Hart Merriam, a biologist who first described several other members of the genus Perognathus, and first elucidated the principle of a “life zone” as a means of characterizing ecological areas with similar plant and animal communities.
Other animals of the family Heteromyidae
Merriam’s pocket mouse is a member of the Heteromyidae, as are these animals:
- Plains pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Mountain spiny pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- San Joaquin pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- San José Island kangaroo rat weighting only 38 grams
- Painted spiny pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Southern spiny pocket mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Great Basin pocket mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Silky pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Margarita Island kangaroo rat raching a size of 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Hispid pocket mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Merriam’s pocket mouse
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Gracile tateril
- Silky mouse
- Common vole
- Field vole
- Delicate slender opossum
- Lesser Egyptian gerbil
- Alpine marmot
- Akodon azarae
- Allen’s chipmunk
- Nyika climbing mouse
Animals that get as old as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Other animals that usually reach the age of 2.5 years:
- Common shrew with 2 years
- Mediterranean water shrew with 2 years
- Talas tuco-tuco with 3 years
- Dibbler with 3 years
- Silky anteater with 2.25 years
- Dibatag with 3 years
- Fat-tailed false antechinus with 3 years
- Pen-tailed treeshrew with 2.67 years
- Sandstone false antechinus with 3 years
- Bicolored shrew with 3 years
Animals with the same weight as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
What other animals weight around 6 grams (0.01 lbs)?
- Japanese house bat weighting 5 grams
- Stoliczka’s trident bat weighting 6 grams
- Large-eared gray shrew weighting 5 grams
- Emilia’s gracile opossum weighting 7 grams
- Saint Lawrence Island shrew weighting 6 grams
- Blyth’s horseshoe bat weighting 5 grams
- Trinidadian funnel-eared bat weighting 6 grams
- Silky pocket mouse weighting 7 grams
- Wagner’s mustached bat weighting 7 grams
- Marshall’s horseshoe bat weighting 5 grams
Animals with the same size as a Merriam’s pocket mouse
Also reaching around 5.8 cm (0′ 3″) in size do these animals:
- Little brown bat gets as big as 5.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Allen’s big-eared bat gets as big as 5.9 cm (0′ 3″)
- Slender shrew gets as big as 5.3 cm (0′ 3″)
- Long-tongued nectar bat gets as big as 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Cuban flower bat gets as big as 6.3 cm (0′ 3″)
- Little yellow-shouldered bat gets as big as 6.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Somali pygmy gerbil gets as big as 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Eurasian pygmy shrew gets as big as 5.7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Serotine bat gets as big as 6.8 cm (0′ 3″)
- Whitaker’s shrew gets as big as 6.1 cm (0′ 3″)