How many baby Polynesian rats are in a litter?
A Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 9 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 21 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 2 grams (0 lbs) and measure 4.2 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Rattus). An adult Polynesian rat grows up to a size of 11.9 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 Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (Rattus exulans), known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, and like its relatives, has become widespread, migrating to most Polynesian islands, including New Zealand, the Marshall Islands, Easter Island, and Hawaii. It shares high adaptability with other rat species extending to many environments, from grasslands to forests. It is also closely associated with humans, who provide easy access to food. It has become a major pest in most areas of its distribution.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Polynesian rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Hairy-eared cerrado mouse weighting only 24 grams
- Montane fish-eating rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Oecomys rutilus weighting only 73 grams
- Van Deusen’s rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Chinese bamboo rat with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Wood lemming with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Sumichrast’s harvest mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Eastern chestnut mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Daphne’s Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
- Ruwenzori thicket rat weighting only 41 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Polynesian rat
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Jackson’s soft-furred mouse
- Nicobar shrew
- Hispid pocket mouse
- Crab-eating mongoose
- Western red-backed vole
- Fisher (animal)
- Darien harvest mouse
- Eastern pygmy possum
- Damaraland mole-rat
- Alpine pine vole
Animals with the same weight as a Polynesian rat
What other animals weight around 50 grams (0.11 lbs)?
- Mexican volcano mouse weighting 44 grams
- Yellow-bellied sheath-tailed bat weighting 45 grams
- Shining thicket rat weighting 50 grams
- Great roundleaf bat weighting 50 grams
- Broad-footed climbing mouse weighting 57 grams
- Chibchan water mouse weighting 50 grams
- Brucepattersonius iheringi weighting 43 grams
- Painted big-eared mouse weighting 51 grams
- Champion’s tree mouse weighting 50 grams
- Taiwan vole weighting 46 grams
Animals with the same size as a Polynesian rat
Also reaching around 11.9 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Altiplano grass mouse gets as big as 9.7 cm (0′ 4″)
- Olrog’s chaco mouse gets as big as 9.6 cm (0′ 4″)
- Dusky caenolestid gets as big as 11.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Bushy-tailed hairy-footed gerbil gets as big as 9.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Gould’s mouse gets as big as 10.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Junin slender opossum gets as big as 11.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Merriam’s chipmunk gets as big as 13.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- Highland brush mouse gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Woolly dormouse gets as big as 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Fawn hopping mouse gets as big as 10 cm (0′ 4″)