How many baby North American porcupines are in a litter?
A North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 210 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 491 grams (1.08 lbs) and measure 100 cm (3′ 4″). They are a member of the Erethizontidae family (genus: Erethizon). An adult North American porcupine grows up to a size of 83.7 cm (2′ 9″).
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 North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), also known as the Canadian porcupine or common porcupine, is a large rodent in the New World porcupine family. The beaver is the only rodent in North America that is larger than the North American porcupine. The porcupine is a caviomorph rodent whose ancestors rafted across the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil over 40 million years ago, and then migrated to North America during the Great American Interchange after the Isthmus of Panama rose 3 million years ago.
Other animals of the family Erethizontidae
North American porcupine is a member of the Erethizontidae, as are these animals:
- Brazilian porcupine with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Brown hairy dwarf porcupine weighting only 736 grams
- Black dwarf porcupine weighting around 3 kilograms (6.61 lbs)
- Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine weighting only 751 grams
- Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine weighting around 2 kilograms (4.41 lbs)
- Black dwarf porcupine weighting around 3 kilograms (6.61 lbs)
- Black-tailed hairy dwarf porcupine weighting around 1.9 kilograms (4.19 lbs)
- Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Stump-tailed porcupine weighting only 832 grams
- Bicolored-spined porcupine with 1 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with North American porcupine
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Black howler
- Bontebok
- Chamois
- Crested mona monkey
- Kerivoula hardwickei
- Daubenton’s bat
- Little bent-wing bat
- Barbary macaque
- Unstriped ground squirrel
- Tenkile
Animals that get as old as a North American porcupine
Other animals that usually reach the age of 18 years:
- Bennett’s tree-kangaroo with 20 years
- Sumatran serow with 21 years
- Goeldi’s marmoset with 17.83 years
- Masked palm civet with 18 years
- Bobak marmot with 15 years
- Nabarlek with 17 years
- Yellow-backed duiker with 17.25 years
- Clouded leopard with 17 years
- Sitatunga with 21.5 years
- American marten with 19 years
Animals with the same weight as a North American porcupine
What other animals weight around 7.42 kg (16.36 lbs)?
- King colobus usually reaching 8.7 kgs (19.18 lbs)
- Southern river otter usually reaching 7.5 kgs (16.53 lbs)
- Hose’s langur usually reaching 6.29 kgs (13.87 lbs)
- Malayan porcupine usually reaching 8 kgs (17.64 lbs)
- Brush-tailed rock-wallaby usually reaching 6.94 kgs (15.3 lbs)
- Lowland paca usually reaching 8.17 kgs (18.01 lbs)
- Black crested gibbon usually reaching 6.43 kgs (14.18 lbs)
- Northern white-cheeked gibbon usually reaching 7.32 kgs (16.14 lbs)
- Western red colobus usually reaching 8.43 kgs (18.58 lbs)
- Maxwell’s duiker usually reaching 8.56 kgs (18.87 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a North American porcupine
Also reaching around 83.7 cm (2′ 9″) in size do these animals:
- Proserpine rock-wallaby gets as big as 100 cm (3′ 4″)
- Dorcas gazelle gets as big as 96.6 cm (3′ 3″)
- Aardwolf gets as big as 70.1 cm (2′ 4″)
- Alpine musk deer gets as big as 90 cm (3′ 0″)
- Goitered gazelle gets as big as 95.8 cm (3′ 2″)
- Speke’s gazelle gets as big as 88.5 cm (2′ 11″)
- Ocelot gets as big as 74.6 cm (2′ 6″)
- Maxwell’s duiker gets as big as 84.5 cm (2′ 10″)
- Drill (animal) gets as big as 70 cm (2′ 4″)
- Sharpe’s grysbok gets as big as 67.9 cm (2′ 3″)