How many baby Northern collared lemmings are in a litter?
A Northern collared lemming (Dicrostonyx rubricatus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 3.4 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Dicrostonyx). An adult Northern collared lemming grows up to a size of 11.7 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 northern collared lemming or Nearctic collared lemming (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus), sometimes called the Peary Land collared lemming in Canada, is a small North American lemming. At one time, it was considered to be a subspecies of the Arctic lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus). Some sources believe several other species of collared lemmings found in North America are actually subspecies of D. groenlandicus.It has a short chunky body covered with thick grey fur with a thin black stripe along its back and light grey underparts. It has small ears, short legs and a very short tail. It has a pale brown collar across its chest. In winter, its fur turns white (believed to be the only rodent to do so), and it has large digging claws on its front feet. It is 14 cm long with a 1.5 cm tail and weighs about 40 g.This animal is found in the tundra of northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland. It feeds on grasses, sedges and other green vegetation in summer, and twigs of willow, aspen and birches in winter. Predators include snowy owls, gulls, wolverines, the Arctic fox and the polar bear.Female lemmings have two or three litters of four to eight young in a year. The young are born in a nest in a burrow or concealed in vegetation.It is active year-round, day and night. It makes runways through the surface vegetation and also digs burrows above the permafrost. It burrows under the snow in winter. Lemming populations go through a three- or four-year cycle of boom and bust. When their population peaks, lemmings disperse from overcrowded areas.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Northern collared lemming is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Lesser Wilfred’s mouse weighting only 22 grams
- Holochilus chacarius weighting only 204 grams
- Painted big-eared mouse weighting only 51 grams
- Eastern shrew mouse weighting only 16 grams
- Colombian forest mouse weighting only 19 grams
- Little wood mouse weighting only 14 grams
- Hispid hocicudo weighting only 36 grams
- Red hocicudo with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Buff-bellied climbing mouse weighting only 89 grams
- Nigerian gerbil weighting only 29 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Northern collared lemming
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Krebs’s fat mouse
- Visayan warty pig
- Pallas’s cat
- Japanese grass vole
- Talas tuco-tuco
- Shrew gymnure
- Culpeo
- Red-tailed chipmunk
- Hazel dormouse
- Utah prairie dog
Animals with the same weight as a Northern collared lemming
What other animals weight around 46 grams (0.1 lbs)?
- Yellow-pine chipmunk weighting 50 grams
- Singing vole weighting 41 grams
- Oecomys concolor weighting 54 grams
- European snow vole weighting 48 grams
- Naked mole-rat weighting 39 grams
- Northern grass mouse weighting 44 grams
- Caatinga vesper mouse weighting 39 grams
- Southwestern myotis weighting 38 grams
- Dolorous grass mouse weighting 50 grams
- Hylaeamys oniscus weighting 49 grams