How many baby Southern African vlei rats are in a litter?
A Southern African vlei rat (Otomys irroratus) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.With 3 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 40 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 13 grams (0.03 lbs) and measure 7.1 cm (0′ 3″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Otomys). An adult Southern African vlei rat grows up to a size of 16.3 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.
The Southern African vlei rat (Otomys irroratus) is a species of rodent in the vlei rat genus, Otomys, of the family Muridae in the order Rodentia. This is the type species of the genus. It is native to the grasslands and swamps of southern Africa where it is a common species.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Southern African vlei rat is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Emin’s pouched rat weighting around 1.28 kilograms (2.82 lbs)
- Bagobo rat weighting only 395 grams
- Neacomys tenuipes with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Oligoryzomys chacoensis weighting only 23 grams
- Montane vole with 5 babies per pregnancy
- New Guinean rat with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Northern Luzon shrew-rat raching a size of 10.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Libyan jird with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Mira climbing rat weighting only 184 grams
- Littledale’s whistling rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Southern African vlei rat
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Mentawai langur
- Lowland mosaic-tailed rat
- Dwarf musk deer
- Eastern lesser bamboo lemur
- Dwarf brocket
- Wall-roosting mouse-eared bat
- Hawaiian monk seal
- Red-bellied titi
- Pennant’s colobus
- Schneider’s leaf-nosed bat
Animals with the same weight as a Southern African vlei rat
What other animals weight around 114 grams (0.25 lbs)?
- Alston’s mouse opossum weighting 132 grams
- Kowari weighting 109 grams
- Banner-tailed kangaroo rat weighting 125 grams
- Vinogradov’s jird weighting 117 grams
- Large-scaled mosaic-tailed rat weighting 117 grams
- Slender rat weighting 109 grams
- Wahlberg’s epauletted fruit bat weighting 93 grams
- Voalavoanala weighting 97 grams
- Peters’s epauletted fruit bat weighting 95 grams
- Spotted ground squirrel weighting 107 grams
Animals with the same size as a Southern African vlei rat
Also reaching around 16.3 cm (0′ 7″) in size do these animals:
- Maritime striped squirrel gets as big as 13.2 cm (0′ 6″)
- Short-tailed hopping mouse gets as big as 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Kowari gets as big as 15.8 cm (0′ 7″)
- Common treeshrew gets as big as 18.5 cm (0′ 8″)
- Betsileo short-tailed rat gets as big as 16.2 cm (0′ 7″)
- Cape York rat gets as big as 18.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Plateau pika gets as big as 17 cm (0′ 7″)
- Large tree mouse gets as big as 13.6 cm (0′ 6″)
- Eastern rat gets as big as 17.3 cm (0′ 7″)
- Baird’s pocket gopher gets as big as 15 cm (0′ 6″)