How many baby Northern collared lemmings are in a litter?
A Northern collared lemming (Dicrostonyx groenlandicus) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 20 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 4 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:
- Oligoryzomys chacoensis weighting only 23 grams
- Stephen’s woodrat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Murree vole with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Dent’s vlei rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Grant’s rock mouse weighting only 40 grams
- Rusty-bellied brush-furred rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Oecomys trinitatis weighting only 73 grams
- Plateau mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Fat sand rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Pygmy gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Northern collared lemming
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- White-tailed rat
- Capybara
- Amazonian marsh rat
- Comb-toed jerboa
- Xerus erythropus
- Hoary bamboo rat
- Irenomys
- Fulvous harvest mouse
- San Diego pocket mouse
- Gambian pouched rat
Animals with the same weight as a Northern collared lemming
What other animals weight around 58 grams (0.13 lbs)?
- Great evening bat weighting 49 grams
- Sulawesi rousette weighting 63 grams
- Togo mouse weighting 55 grams
- Miller’s striped mouse weighting 49 grams
- Mexican spiny pocket mouse weighting 49 grams
- Cape elephant shrew weighting 49 grams
- Dormouse tufted-tailed rat weighting 69 grams
- Malayan water shrew weighting 55 grams
- Trinidad spiny pocket mouse weighting 69 grams
- Spanish mole weighting 48 grams
Animals with the same size as a Northern collared lemming
Also reaching around 11.7 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Sepia short-tailed opossum gets as big as 12.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Panama slender opossum gets as big as 11.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Mount Apo forest mouse gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Parantechinus bilarni gets as big as 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Hainan gymnure gets as big as 13.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Djoongari gets as big as 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Red-tailed phascogale gets as big as 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Dormouse tufted-tailed rat gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Lesser tree mouse gets as big as 10.9 cm (0′ 5″)
- Four-toed rice tenrec gets as big as 10.7 cm (0′ 5″)