How many baby Shaw’s jirds are in a litter?
A Shaw’s jird (Meriones shawi) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 24 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 4 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 1.5 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Meriones). An adult Shaw’s jird grows up to a size of 15 cm (0′ 6″).
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.
Shaw’s jird (Meriones shawi) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Its natural habitats are arable land, pastureland, and rural gardens.They typically live 1–2 years.Shaw’s jird is able to survive long periods of dehydration in semi-desert regions where it lives, in part because of its well developed kidneys. During the rainy season, Shaw’s jirds breed more compared to summer when there is less rain.In the Algerian highlands, they are a main prey source for Barn owls.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Shaw’s jird is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Large Japanese field mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Watson’s climbing rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- African wading rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- African pygmy mouse with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Narrow-headed vole with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Balkan snow vole with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Ecuadorian grass mouse weighting only 39 grams
- Woodland Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
- Mexican harvest mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- White-footed vole with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Shaw’s jird
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Bobrinski’s jerboa
- Great Balkhan mouse-like hamster
- Cliff chipmunk
- Wood mouse
- Western jumping mouse
- Coyote
- Algerian mouse
- Dalton’s mouse
- Corsac fox
- Asia Minor ground squirrel
Animals with the same weight as a Shaw’s jird
What other animals weight around 90 grams (0.2 lbs)?
- Pink fairy armadillo weighting 86 grams
- Asian garden dormouse weighting 100 grams
- Arnhem Land rock rat weighting 94 grams
- Paramo Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
- Oecomys phaeotis weighting 73 grams
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat weighting 80 grams
- Southern mole vole weighting 80 grams
- Candango mouse weighting 97 grams
- Sonoma chipmunk weighting 75 grams
- Mountain spiny pocket mouse weighting 74 grams