How many baby Norway lemmings are in a litter?
A Norway lemming (Lemmus lemmus) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 15 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 20 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 1.4 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Lemmus). An adult Norway lemming grows up to a size of 10.3 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 Norway lemming, also Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) is a common species of lemming found in northern Fennoscandia. It is the only vertebrate species endemic to the region. The Norway lemming dwells in tundra and fells, and prefers to live near water. Adults feed primarily on sedges, grasses and moss. They are active at both day and night, alternating naps with periods of activity.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Norway lemming is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Red hocicudo with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Oecomys bicolor with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Soft-furred rat with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Bower’s white-toothed rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Variable grass mouse weighting only 40 grams
- Lesser bamboo rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Namaqua rock rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Mount Kahuzi climbing mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Tumbala climbing rat weighting only 280 grams
- Lowland mosaic-tailed rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Norway lemming
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Little Indian field mouse
- Eurasian harvest mouse
- Olive grass mouse
- Marbled polecat
- Wood lemming
- Least weasel
- Meadow jumping mouse
- Buxton’s jird
- Hispid cotton rat
- Long-eared chipmunk
Animals that get as old as a Norway lemming
Other animals that usually reach the age of 2 years:
- Hoary bat with 2.08 years
- Delany’s mouse with 2 years
- Mediterranean water shrew with 2 years
- Dusky antechinus with 2 years
- Müller’s giant Sunda rat with 2 years
- Red-cheeked dunnart with 2 years
- Malabar spiny dormouse with 1.67 years
- Fawn antechinus with 2.25 years
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat with 2.25 years
- Silky anteater with 2.25 years
Animals with the same weight as a Norway lemming
What other animals weight around 67 grams (0.15 lbs)?
- Taczanowski’s Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Thomas’s Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Geoffroy’s rousette weighting 74 grams
- Bushy-tailed jird weighting 56 grams
- Cape York melomys weighting 70 grams
- Horsfield’s fruit bat weighting 55 grams
- Oryzomys couesi weighting 69 grams
- Oryzomys gorgasi weighting 60 grams
- Daphne’s Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Northern red-sided opossum weighting 79 grams