How many baby Mexican prairie dogs are in a litter?
A Mexican prairie dog (Cynomys mexicanus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 30 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 15 grams (0.03 lbs) and measure 25.4 cm (0′ 10″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Cynomys). An adult Mexican prairie dog grows up to a size of 34.2 cm (1′ 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.
The Mexican prairie dog (Cynomys mexicanus) is a diurnal burrowing rodent native to Mexico. Treatment as an agricultural pest has led to its status as an endangered species. They are closely related to squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots. Cynomys mexicanus originated about 230,000 years ago from a peripherally isolated population of the more widespread Cynomys ludovicianus.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Mexican prairie dog is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Yellow-cheeked chipmunk weighting only 91 grams
- Groundhog with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Red-cheeked ground squirrel with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Nilgiri striped squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Black giant squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Ear-spot squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Kinabalu squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Lodgepole chipmunk with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Jungle palm squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Mexican prairie dog
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Brown four-eyed opossum
- Tondano rat
- Long-tailed giant rat
- Panamint chipmunk
- Beaded wood mouse
- Utah prairie dog
- Shrew gymnure
- Greater white-toothed shrew
- Hazel dormouse
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat
Animals with the same weight as a Mexican prairie dog
What other animals weight around 900 grams (1.98 lbs)?
- Lemur-like ringtail possum weighting 997 grams
- Cacomistle weighting 906 grams
- Hispaniolan solenodon weighting 893 grams
- Red-tailed sportive lemur weighting 763 grams
- Livingstone’s fruit bat weighting 733 grams
- Mountain cottontail weighting 803 grams
- Yellow-throated squirrel weighting 803 grams
- Black-headed night monkey usually reaching 1.06 kgs (2.34 lbs)
- Cuban solenodon weighting 806 grams
- Black-bearded flying fox weighting 872 grams
Animals with the same size as a Mexican prairie dog
Also reaching around 34.2 cm (1′ 2″) in size do these animals:
- Striped skunk gets as big as 40 cm (1′ 4″)
- Desert cottontail gets as big as 32.5 cm (1′ 1″)
- Javan mongoose gets as big as 27.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Indonesian mountain weasel gets as big as 30.9 cm (1′ 1″)
- Robust cottontail gets as big as 39.4 cm (1′ 4″)
- Weyland ringtail possum gets as big as 31 cm (1′ 1″)
- Eastern cottontail gets as big as 37.2 cm (1′ 3″)
- Siberian weasel gets as big as 30.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Slender mongoose gets as big as 33 cm (1′ 1″)
- Tufted ground squirrel gets as big as 40.6 cm (1′ 4″)