How many baby Smith’s bush squirrels are in a litter?
A Smith’s bush squirrel (Paraxerus cepapi) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 56 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 12 grams (0.03 lbs) and measure 7.8 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Paraxerus). An adult Smith’s bush squirrel grows up to a size of 17.2 cm (0′ 7″).
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.
Smith’s bush squirrel (Paraxerus cepapi), also known as the yellow-footed squirrel or tree squirrel, is an African bush squirrel which is native to woodlands of the southern Afrotropics.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Smith’s bush squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Red-tailed chipmunk with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Kinabalu squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Basilan flying squirrel raching a size of 24.8 cm (0′ 10″)
- Douglas squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Three-striped ground squirrel weighting only 175 grams
- Red squirrel with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Yellow ground squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Horse-tailed squirrel weighting only 358 grams
- Siberian flying squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Smith’s bush squirrel
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Myosorex varius
- Black-tufted marmoset
- Spotted-necked otter
- Brown bear
- Mountain mosaic-tailed rat
- White-sided jackrabbit
- Southern spiny pocket mouse
- American pika
- Serval
- Short-tailed chinchilla
Animals with the same weight as a Smith’s bush squirrel
What other animals weight around 222 grams (0.49 lbs)?
- Mendoza tuco-tuco weighting 179 grams
- Northeast African mole-rat weighting 227 grams
- Dusky-footed woodrat weighting 219 grams
- Dusky bushbaby weighting 213 grams
- Pallid Atlantic tree-rat weighting 215 grams
- Afghan pika weighting 250 grams
- Bennett’s chinchilla rat weighting 251 grams
- Barbary ground squirrel weighting 251 grams
- Large-eared pika weighting 205 grams
- Chinese zokor weighting 257 grams
Animals with the same size as a Smith’s bush squirrel
Also reaching around 17.2 cm (0′ 7″) in size do these animals:
- Palawan soft-furred mountain rat gets as big as 14.4 cm (0′ 6″)
- Greater fairy armadillo gets as big as 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Moncton’s mosaic-tailed rat gets as big as 14.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- European water vole gets as big as 19.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Four-toed hedgehog gets as big as 15.9 cm (0′ 7″)
- Striped treeshrew gets as big as 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Lesser small-toothed rat gets as big as 15.8 cm (0′ 7″)
- Black rat gets as big as 19.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Edible dormouse gets as big as 16.7 cm (0′ 7″)
- Steppe pika gets as big as 15.7 cm (0′ 7″)