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Litter Size

How many babies does a New England cottontail have at once? (litter size)

How many baby New England cottontails are in a litter?

A New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.

Each of those little ones spend around 28 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 34 grams (0.07 lbs) and measure 11.2 cm (0′ 5″). They are a member of the Leporidae family (genus: Sylvilagus). An adult New England cottontail grows up to a size of 36.3 cm (1′ 3″).

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 average litter size of a New England cottontail is 4

The New England cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis), also called the gray rabbit, brush rabbit, wood hare, wood rabbit, or cooney, is a species of cottontail rabbit represented by fragmented populations in areas of New England, specifically from southern Maine to southern New York. This species bears a close resemblance to the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), which has been introduced in much of the New England cottontail home range. The eastern cottontail is now more common in it.Litvaitis et al. (2006) estimated that the current area of occupancy in its historic range is 12,180 km2 (4,700 sq mi) – some 86% less than the occupied range in 1960. Because of this decrease in this species’ numbers and habitat, the New England cottontail is a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Cottontail hunting has been restricted in some areas where the eastern and New England cottontail species coexist in order to protect the remaining New England cottontail population.Rabbits require habitat patches of at least 12 acres to maintain a stable population. In New Hampshire, the number of suitable patches dropped from 20 to 8 in the early 2000s. The ideal habitat is 25 acres of continuous early successional habitat within a larger landscape that provides shrub wetlands and dense thickets. Federal funding has been used for habitat restoration work on state lands, including the planting of shrubs and other growth critical to the rabbit’s habitat. Funding has also been made available to private landowners who are willing to create thicket-type brush habitat which doesn’t have much economic value.

Other animals of the family Leporidae

New England cottontail is a member of the Leporidae, as are these animals:

Animals that share a litter size with New England cottontail

Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:

Animals with the same weight as a New England cottontail

What other animals weight around 814 grams (1.79 lbs)?

Animals with the same size as a New England cottontail

Also reaching around 36.3 cm (1′ 3″) in size do these animals: