How many baby Olympic marmots are in a litter?
A Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 27 grams (0.06 lbs) and measure 8.9 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Marmota). An adult Olympic marmot grows up to a size of 41.4 cm (1′ 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 Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is a rodent in the squirrel family, Sciuridae; it occurs only in the U.S. state of Washington, on the middle elevations of the Olympic Peninsula. The closest relatives of this species are the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot. In 2009, it was declared the official endemic mammal of Washington.This marmot is about the size of a domestic cat, typically weighing about 8 kg (18 lb) in summer. The species shows the greatest sexual dimorphism found in marmots, with adult males weighing on average 23% more than females. It can be identified by a wide head, small eyes and ears, stubby legs, and a long, bushy tail. Its sharp, rounded claws aid in digging burrows. The coat color changes with the season and with age, but an adult marmot’s coat is brown all over with small whiter areas for most of the year.The species has a diet consisting mainly of a variety of meadow flora, including dry grasses, which it also uses as bedding in burrows. It is preyed on by various terrestrial mammals and avian raptors, but its main predator today is the coyote. The Olympic marmot is rated a species of the least concern on the IUCN Red List. It is protected by law in the Olympic National Park, which contains most of its habitat.The burrows of this marmot are made in colonies, which are found in various mountain locations and differ in size. A colony may contain as few as one marmot family or multiple families with up to 40 marmots. Olympic marmots are very sociable animals which often engage in play fighting and vocalize four different whistles to communicate. During hibernation beginning in September, they are in a deep sleep and do not eat, causing them to lose half their body mass. Adults emerge in May and their young in June. Female marmots reach sexual maturity at three years of age, and produce litters of 1–6 every other mating season.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Olympic marmot is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Mutable sun squirrel weighting only 390 grams
- Pallas’s squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Four-striped ground squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Boehm’s bush squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Long-clawed ground squirrel with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Alpine marmot with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Complex-toothed flying squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Guayaquil squirrel weighting only 433 grams
- Townsend’s ground squirrel with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Richmond’s squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Olympic marmot
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Transcaucasian mole vole
- Tropical pocket gopher
- Short-tailed shrew tenrec
- Gray four-eyed opossum
- Northern pocket gopher
- Brown four-eyed opossum
- Southern African hedgehog
- Bare-tailed woolly opossum
- Talas tuco-tuco
- Bank vole
Animals with the same weight as a Olympic marmot
What other animals weight around 6.3 kg (13.89 lbs)?
- Raccoon usually reaching 6.37 kgs (14.04 lbs)
- Black-spotted cuscus usually reaching 6 kgs (13.23 lbs)
- Black howler usually reaching 5.58 kgs (12.3 lbs)
- Mentawai langur usually reaching 6.45 kgs (14.22 lbs)
- Coypu usually reaching 6.36 kgs (14.02 lbs)
- Northern white-cheeked gibbon usually reaching 7.32 kgs (16.14 lbs)
- Pig-tailed langur usually reaching 7.39 kgs (16.29 lbs)
- White-bellied spider monkey usually reaching 6.71 kgs (14.79 lbs)
- Brown woolly monkey usually reaching 6.27 kgs (13.82 lbs)
- Red-handed howler usually reaching 6.17 kgs (13.6 lbs)