How many baby Mexican woodrats are in a litter?
A Mexican woodrat (Neotoma mexicana) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 4 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 33 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 10 grams (0.02 lbs) and measure 6.6 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Neotoma). An adult Mexican woodrat grows up to a size of 18.4 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 woodrat (Neotoma mexicana) is a medium-sized rat occurring in the United States from Utah and Colorado south through New Mexico and parts of Arizona and Trans-Pecos Texas. Its range continues south in the highlands to Honduras. Although occurring at lower elevations during the Pleistocene, it generally is limited now to highlands supporting open coniferous forests or woodlands. In a few places, it occurs in lower country where lava or boulder fields occur; presumably the presence of spaces extending far below the surface enables survival. Like most members of the genus living in rocky areas, dens tend to take advantage of crevices, rock shelters, and caves; stick nests are relatively rare.The type locality is near Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. Some 26 species names have been applied to populations of the Mexican woodrat and are now considered synonyms.The animal averages a bit over 300 mm in total length and weighs 140 to 185 g. Their diets tend to be generalist, with a wide variety of berries, vegetation, nuts, acorns, and fungi, though foliage seems to make up the major food class.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Mexican woodrat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Melanomys robustulus weighting only 53 grams
- Small-toothed harvest mouse weighting only 20 grams
- Western white-eared giant rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Short-nosed harvest mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Fraternal hill rat weighting only 130 grams
- Least forest mouse weighting only 21 grams
- Least groove-toothed swamp rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Lataste’s gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Snow-footed Oldfield mouse weighting only 54 grams
- Mexican deer mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Mexican woodrat
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Spotted-necked otter
- Cape fox
- Wolverine
- Snow leopard
- Long-tailed mouse
- Saharan striped polecat
- Crab-eating raccoon
- Pied tamarin
- Oecomys bicolor
- Black-tailed jackrabbit
Animals with the same weight as a Mexican woodrat
What other animals weight around 203 grams (0.45 lbs)?
- Lesser mole-rat weighting 189 grams
- Dusky-footed woodrat weighting 219 grams
- Banks flying fox weighting 210 grams
- Three-striped dasyure weighting 223 grams
- Brazilian squirrel weighting 177 grams
- Small sun squirrel weighting 174 grams
- Mendoza tuco-tuco weighting 179 grams
- Nectomys squamipes weighting 185 grams
- White-bellied nesomys weighting 214 grams
- Anthony’s woodrat weighting 195 grams
Animals with the same size as a Mexican woodrat
Also reaching around 18.4 cm (0′ 8″) in size do these animals:
- Mindanao squirrel gets as big as 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Striped treeshrew gets as big as 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Northern Palawan tree squirrel gets as big as 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- European water vole gets as big as 19.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Gray tree rat gets as big as 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Sundevall’s jird gets as big as 15 cm (0′ 6″)
- Golden hamster gets as big as 18 cm (0′ 8″)
- Bioko Allen’s bushbaby gets as big as 20 cm (0′ 8″)
- North African hedgehog gets as big as 21.4 cm (0′ 9″)
- Daurian hedgehog gets as big as 21.5 cm (0′ 9″)