How many baby Mongolian gerbils are in a litter?
A Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 15 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 25 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 1.5 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Meriones). An adult Mongolian gerbil grows up to a size of 11.2 cm (0′ 5″).
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 Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (Meriones unguiculatus) is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Body size is typically 110–135mm, with a 95–120mm tail, and body weight 60–130g, with adult males larger than females. The animal is used in science and kept as a small house pet. Their use in science dates back to the latter half of the 19th century, but they only started to be kept as pets after 1954, when they were brought to the United States. However, their use in scientific research has fallen out of favor.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Mongolian gerbil is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Pale gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Rümmler’s brush mouse weighting only 29 grams
- Savi’s pine vole weighting only 20 grams
- Large Japanese field mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Ernst Mayr’s water rat weighting only 42 grams
- Oligoryzomys fulvescens with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Neacomys guianae weighting only 15 grams
- Wood mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Big-eared climbing rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Round-tailed muskrat with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Mongolian gerbil
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Siberian large-toothed shrew
- Mongolian hamster
- Midday jird
- Belding’s ground squirrel
- Pygmy rabbit
- Tiger quoll
- Montane vole
- Lorrain dormouse
- Gray marmot
- Coypu
Animals that get as old as a Mongolian gerbil
Other animals that usually reach the age of 2 years:
- Southern red-backed vole with 1.67 years
- Eurasian pygmy shrew with 2 years
- Eastern harvest mouse with 2.17 years
- Marsh rice rat with 2.33 years
- Aegialomys galapagoensis with 1.67 years
- Dusky antechinus with 2 years
- Malabar spiny dormouse with 1.67 years
- Slender-tailed dunnart with 2 years
- McIlhenny’s four-eyed opossum with 2.25 years
- Honey possum with 2 years
Animals with the same weight as a Mongolian gerbil
What other animals weight around 57 grams (0.13 lbs)?
- Polynesian rat weighting 50 grams
- Horsfield’s fruit bat weighting 55 grams
- Edward’s swamp rat weighting 63 grams
- Andean rat weighting 53 grams
- Melanomys zunigae weighting 53 grams
- Euryoryzomys russatus weighting 60 grams
- Jentink’s flying squirrel weighting 56 grams
- Temchuk’s bolo mouse weighting 47 grams
- Hildegarde’s broad-headed mouse weighting 55 grams
- Dwarf fat-tailed jerboa weighting 52 grams
Animals with the same size as a Mongolian gerbil
Also reaching around 11.2 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Western chestnut mouse gets as big as 10.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Tarabundí vole gets as big as 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Creeping vole gets as big as 9.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Rusty-bellied brush-furred rat gets as big as 11.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Palmer’s chipmunk gets as big as 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- One-toothed shrew mouse gets as big as 9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Dian’s tarsier gets as big as 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Nelson’s kangaroo rat gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mount Apo forest mouse gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Greater big-footed mouse gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)