How many baby Mountain pygmy possums are in a litter?
A Mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 14 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 42 grams (0.09 lbs) and measure 7.2 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Burramyidae family (genus: Burramys). An adult Mountain pygmy possum grows up to a size of 11.4 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 mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus) is a small, mouse-sized (weighs 45 grams (1.6 oz)) nocturnal marsupial of Australia found in dense alpine rock screes and boulder fields, mainly southern Victoria and around Mount Kosciuszko in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales at elevations from 1,300 to 2,230 metres (4,270 to 7,320 ft). At almost 14 cm (5.5 in), its prehensile tail is longer than its 11 cm (4.3 in) combined head and body length. Its diet consists of insects (such as the bogong moth), fleshy fruits, nuts, nectar and seeds. Its body is covered in a thick coat of fine grey fur except for its stomach, which is cream coloured; its tail is hairless. On the underside of the female’s body is a pouch containing four teats. This possum is the only extant species in the genus Burramys. It is also the only Australian mammal restricted to alpine habitat.
Other animals of the family Burramyidae
Mountain pygmy possum is a member of the Burramyidae, as are these animals:
- Western pygmy possum with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Eastern pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Long-tailed pygmy possum with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Tasmanian pygmy possum with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Mountain pygmy possum
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Yucatan deer mouse
- Dark-tailed tree rat
- Mitchell’s hopping mouse
- Smooth-coated otter
- Mongolian five-toed jerboa
- Baluchistan pygmy jerboa
- American hog-nosed skunk
- Molina’s grass mouse
- Pyrenean desman
- Trowbridge’s shrew
Animals that get as old as a Mountain pygmy possum
Other animals that usually reach the age of 12 years:
- Rock hyrax with 14 years
- Brush-tailed rock-wallaby with 14.33 years
- Quokka with 12 years
- Silver dik-dik with 14 years
- Greater bilby with 10 years
- Groundhog with 10 years
- Black giant squirrel with 10.08 years
- Yellow-spotted rock hyrax with 14 years
- Crab-eating mongoose with 13.33 years
- Zebra duiker with 12.17 years
Animals with the same weight as a Mountain pygmy possum
What other animals weight around 44 grams (0.1 lbs)?
- Southwestern myotis weighting 38 grams
- Eastern tube-nosed bat weighting 48 grams
- Mittendorf’s striped grass mouse weighting 41 grams
- Vordermann’s flying squirrel weighting 36 grams
- Miller’s striped mouse weighting 49 grams
- Osgood’s leaf-eared mouse weighting 45 grams
- Greater Asiatic yellow bat weighting 36 grams
- Northern mole vole weighting 40 grams
- Plateau mouse weighting 40 grams
- Temminck’s flying squirrel weighting 43 grams
Animals with the same size as a Mountain pygmy possum
Also reaching around 11.4 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Chinese mole shrew gets as big as 9.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mount Apo forest mouse gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Zempoaltepec gets as big as 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Forest Oldfield mouse gets as big as 10.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Hairy-eared dwarf lemur gets as big as 13.3 cm (0′ 6″)
- Masked flying fox gets as big as 13.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Brazilian slender opossum gets as big as 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat gets as big as 13.3 cm (0′ 6″)
- Colorado chipmunk gets as big as 12.2 cm (0′ 5″)
- Patagonian opossum gets as big as 13.6 cm (0′ 6″)