How many baby Short-footed Luzon tree rats are in a litter?
A Short-footed Luzon tree rat (Carpomys melanurus) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 4 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 1.7 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Carpomys). An adult Short-footed Luzon tree rat grows up to a size of 20 cm (0′ 8″).
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 short-footed Luzon tree rat or greater dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys melanurus) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in the Philippines, specifically in northern Luzon. Its natural habitat is tropical moist montane forests.This species was long thought to be extinct. In 2008, Filipino researchers including Dr. Danilo Balete found a specimen in the canopy of Mount Pulag National Park, the first scientifically observed individual of the species since 1896. The captured individual was “about 185 grams and has dense soft reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout and a long tail covered with dark hair”.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Short-footed Luzon tree rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Black-tailed tree rat weighting only 125 grams
- Miller’s striped mouse weighting only 49 grams
- Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat raching a size of 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Poncelet’s giant rat weighting around 1 kilograms (2.2 lbs)
- Morgan’s gerbil mouse weighting only 16 grams
- Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Central rock rat weighting only 100 grams
- White-tipped tufted-tailed rat weighting only 100 grams
- Maximowicz’s vole with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Southern grasshopper mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Short-footed Luzon tree rat
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Barasingha
- Collared mangabey
- African savanna hare
- Horsfield’s tarsier
- Black wallaroo
- Bushveld elephant shrew
- Taruca
- Central American agouti
- Striped possum
- Sitatunga
Animals with the same size as a Short-footed Luzon tree rat
Also reaching around 20 cm (0′ 8″) in size do these animals:
- Ornate flying fox gets as big as 18.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Soft-spined Atlantic spiny rat gets as big as 19.7 cm (0′ 8″)
- Siberian flying squirrel gets as big as 16 cm (0′ 7″)
- Sulawesi stripe-faced fruit bat gets as big as 16.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Northern Palawan tree squirrel gets as big as 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Dusky-footed woodrat gets as big as 20.8 cm (0′ 9″)
- Southern Plains woodrat gets as big as 21.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Tome’s spiny rat gets as big as 22.9 cm (0′ 10″)
- Crest-tailed mulgara gets as big as 17.5 cm (0′ 7″)
- Gaoligong pika gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)