How many baby Ruddy mongooses are in a litter?
A Ruddy mongoose (Herpestes smithii) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 24 grams (0.05 lbs) and measure 1.3 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Herpestidae family (genus: Herpestes). An adult Ruddy mongoose grows up to a size of 40.7 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 ruddy mongoose (Herpestes smithii) is a mongoose species native to hill forests in India and Sri Lanka. This mongoose, along with the striped-neck and Indian grey mongeese, are the only mongoose species endemic to India and Sri Lanka. The ruddy mongoose is very closely related to Indian grey mongoose, but distinguished by its slightly larger size and black-tipped tail extending for 2 to 3 inches at the distal end. There are two subspecies of this mongoose, H. smithii smithii in India, and H. smithii zeylanicus (Thomas, 1852) in Sri Lanka.
Other animals of the family Herpestidae
Ruddy mongoose is a member of the Herpestidae, as are these animals:
- Indian grey mongoose with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Narrow-striped mongoose with 1 babies per pregnancy
- White-tailed mongoose with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Ethiopian dwarf mongoose weighting only 485 grams
- Slender mongoose with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Black-footed mongoose with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Gambian mongoose weighting around 1.64 kilograms (3.62 lbs)
- Common dwarf mongoose with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Common kusimanse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Cape gray mongoose with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Ruddy mongoose
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Van Deusen’s rat
- Southern Plains woodrat
- Unalaska collared lemming
- Eurasian beaver
- Slender mongoose
- Red acouchi
- Red-bellied mosaic-tailed rat
- Pygmy mouse lemur
- Common rufous-nosed rat
- Giant otter shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Ruddy mongoose
What other animals weight around 1.7 kg (3.75 lbs)?
- Banded hare-wallaby usually reaching 1.94 kgs (4.28 lbs)
- Chacoan mara usually reaching 1.61 kgs (3.55 lbs)
- Rusty-spotted cat usually reaching 1.42 kgs (3.13 lbs)
- Greater bamboo lemur usually reaching 2.04 kgs (4.5 lbs)
- Mountain cuscus usually reaching 1.82 kgs (4.01 lbs)
- Red giant flying squirrel usually reaching 1.54 kgs (3.4 lbs)
- Tree pangolin usually reaching 1.54 kgs (3.4 lbs)
- Northern brown bandicoot usually reaching 1.51 kgs (3.33 lbs)
- Steppe polecat usually reaching 1.69 kgs (3.73 lbs)
- Riverine rabbit usually reaching 1.75 kgs (3.86 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Ruddy mongoose
Also reaching around 40.7 cm (1′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Marsh rabbit gets as big as 40.2 cm (1′ 4″)
- White-faced saki gets as big as 34.6 cm (1′ 2″)
- Common kusimanse gets as big as 33.9 cm (1′ 2″)
- Red-bellied titi gets as big as 35.8 cm (1′ 3″)
- White-bellied spider monkey gets as big as 46 cm (1′ 7″)
- Ring-tailed lemur gets as big as 42.5 cm (1′ 5″)
- Southern naked-tailed armadillo gets as big as 45.5 cm (1′ 6″)
- Moonrat gets as big as 32.7 cm (1′ 1″)
- Wedge-capped capuchin gets as big as 40.4 cm (1′ 4″)
- Woolly hare gets as big as 46.5 cm (1′ 7″)