How many baby Mexican ground squirrels are in a litter?
A Mexican ground squirrel (Spermophilus mexicanus) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 4 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 5.2 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Spermophilus). An adult Mexican ground squirrel grows up to a size of 19.3 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.
The Mexican ground squirrel (Ictidomys mexicanus) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in Mexico and the United States. One of its closest relatives is the thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus).
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Mexican ground squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Black-eared squirrel raching a size of 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Bobak marmot with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Zanj sun squirrel weighting only 347 grams
- Santander dwarf squirrel weighting only 99 grams
- Hagen’s flying squirrel raching a size of 24.8 cm (0′ 10″)
- Red-cheeked rope squirrel weighting only 250 grams
- Variegated squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Grey-bellied squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Indian giant squirrel weighting around 1.06 kilograms (2.34 lbs)
- Black-striped squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Mexican ground squirrel
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Dark bolo mouse
- Mearns’s pouched mouse
- Sagebrush vole
- European rabbit
- Kowari
- Zarudny’s rock shrew
- Dusky slender opossum
- House mouse
- Pacific jumping mouse
- Gansu shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Mexican ground squirrel
What other animals weight around 177 grams (0.39 lbs)?
- Red spiny rat weighting 150 grams
- Long-footed treeshrew weighting 168 grams
- Collared tuco-tuco weighting 210 grams
- Haig’s tuco-tuco weighting 164 grams
- Ricefield rat weighting 165 grams
- Alcorn’s pocket gopher weighting 150 grams
- Tawny-bellied cotton rat weighting 196 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher weighting 150 grams
- Southeastern pocket gopher weighting 201 grams
- Mindoro striped rat weighting 152 grams
Animals with the same size as a Mexican ground squirrel
Also reaching around 19.3 cm (0′ 8″) in size do these animals:
- Texas pocket gopher gets as big as 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Soft-spined Atlantic spiny rat gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Guyenne spiny rat gets as big as 22 cm (0′ 9″)
- Javanese flying squirrel gets as big as 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Cape York rat gets as big as 18.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Townsend’s pocket gopher gets as big as 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Ricefield rat gets as big as 19.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Tawny-bellied cotton rat gets as big as 18 cm (0′ 8″)
- Vinogradov’s jird gets as big as 15.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Chestnut-bellied spiny rat gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)