How many baby Rakalis are in a litter?
A Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster) 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 36 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 25 grams (0.06 lbs) and measure 8.5 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Hydromys). An adult Rakali grows up to a size of 27.5 cm (0′ 11″).
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 rakali, Hydromys chrysogaster, also known as the rabe or water-rat, is an Australian native rodent first described in 1804. The change to the aboriginal name Rakali was intended to foster a positive public attitude by Environment Australia.Kunwinjku of western Arnhem Land call this animal Yirrku (Goodfellow, Fauna of Kakadu and the Top End, 1993).It is the only member of the genus Hydromys with a range extending beyond Papua New Guinea and Indonesian West Papua. Having adapted to and colonised a unique niche of a semiaquatic and nocturnal lifestyle, this species lives in burrows on the banks of rivers, lakes and estuaries and feeds on aquatic insects, fish, crustaceans, mussels, snails, frogs, birds’ eggs and water birds. Rakali have a body 231–370 millimetres (9.1–14.6 in) in length, weigh, 340–1,275 grams (0.750–2.811 lb) and have a thick tail measuring around 242–345 millimetres (9.5–13.6 in). Females are generally smaller than males but tail lengths are normally the same.They have partially webbed hind legs, waterproof fur, a flattened head, a long blunt nose, many whiskers and small ears and eyes. The body is streamlined with a skull that is large, flat and elongated, with two molars on the upper and lower jaw, similar to the False water rat Xeromys myoides. They are black to brown in colour with an orange to white belly, and dark tail with a white tip.Hunted for their soft fur and considered a nuisance animal, numbers were under threat until a protection order in 1938. They were still under destruction permits from 1938 to 1957 due to alleged destruction of irrigation banks and destruction of fishing nets. Additionally from 1957 to 1967 a number of licensed seasons were also held for this reason.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Rakali is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Northern Luzon shrew-rat raching a size of 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Abrothrix sanborni weighting only 24 grams
- Sundevall’s jird with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Brown rat with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Luzon short-nosed rat raching a size of 15.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Eastern heather vole with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Akodon azarae with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Lataste’s gerbil with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Northern bog lemming with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Long-footed rat raching a size of 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)
Animals that share a litter size with Rakali
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Large vlei rat
- Neacomys tenuipes
- American hog-nosed skunk
- Insular vole
- Woolly hare
- Oligoryzomys nigripes
- Russian desman
- Amazonian marsh rat
- Thick-tailed three-toed jerboa
- Trowbridge’s shrew
Animals that get as old as a Rakali
Other animals that usually reach the age of 6.17 years:
- Indian gerbil with 7 years
- Least chipmunk with 6.25 years
- Canyon bat with 6 years
- Woodland dormouse with 5.75 years
- Cave nectar bat with 5 years
- Rufous elephant shrew with 6 years
- Kowari with 7 years
- African striped weasel with 5.17 years
- Woylie with 6.5 years
- Spectacled hare-wallaby with 6 years
Animals with the same weight as a Rakali
What other animals weight around 626 grams (1.38 lbs)?
- Narrow-striped mongoose weighting 664 grams
- Northern Amazon red squirrel weighting 700 grams
- Marbled polecat weighting 594 grams
- Moluccan flying fox weighting 728 grams
- Painted ringtail possum weighting 639 grams
- Insular flying fox weighting 560 grams
- Weasel sportive lemur weighting 670 grams
- Solomons flying fox weighting 661 grams
- Long-nosed bandicoot weighting 720 grams
- Golden lion tamarin weighting 593 grams
Animals with the same size as a Rakali
Also reaching around 27.5 cm (0′ 11″) in size do these animals:
- Mountain cottontail gets as big as 32.4 cm (1′ 1″)
- Giant Atlantic tree-rat gets as big as 28.2 cm (1′ 0″)
- Prevost’s squirrel gets as big as 24.7 cm (0′ 10″)
- Greater dwarf lemur gets as big as 22.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Short-tailed chinchilla gets as big as 30.5 cm (1′ 1″)
- Lowland ringtail possum gets as big as 22.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Pichi gets as big as 29.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- Cape ground squirrel gets as big as 24.7 cm (0′ 10″)
- Fat-tailed dwarf lemur gets as big as 22.5 cm (0′ 9″)
- Rock squirrel gets as big as 27.3 cm (0′ 11″)