How many baby Southern flying squirrels are in a litter?
A Southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 6 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 39 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 3 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 4.8 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Glaucomys). An adult Southern flying squirrel grows up to a size of 12.7 cm (0′ 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 southern flying squirrel or the assapan (Glaucomys volans) is one of three species of the genus Glaucomys and one of three flying squirrel species found in North America. It is found in deciduous and mixed woods in the eastern half of North America, from southeastern Canada, to Florida. Disjunct distribution for populations of this species have been recorded in the highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Southern flying squirrel is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Red and white giant flying squirrel weighting around 1.5 kilograms (3.31 lbs)
- Travancore flying squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Lunda rope squirrel weighting only 135 grams
- Slender squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Rock squirrel with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Smoky flying squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- California chipmunk with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Davao squirrel raching a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
- Townsend’s chipmunk with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Busuanga squirrel raching a size of 21 cm (0′ 9″)
Animals that share a litter size with Southern flying squirrel
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- San Diego pocket mouse
- Dark-tailed tree rat
- Texas pocket gopher
- Plains rat
- Nelson’s pocket mouse
- Sado mole
- Beech marten
- Waterhouse’s swamp rat
- Japanese shrew mole
- Celebes warty pig
Animals that get as old as a Southern flying squirrel
Other animals that usually reach the age of 12 years:
- Urial with 13.75 years
- Harnessed bushbuck with 13 years
- Raccoon dog with 14 years
- Long-nosed potoroo with 12 years
- Pudú with 12.5 years
- Arabian tahr with 14 years
- European hedgehog with 14 years
- Asian small-clawed otter with 10.08 years
- Lesser long-nosed bat with 10 years
- Bush dog with 10.33 years
Animals with the same weight as a Southern flying squirrel
What other animals weight around 72 grams (0.16 lbs)?
- Mountain pocket gopher weighting 81 grams
- Aquatic rat weighting 66 grams
- Fawn-footed mosaic-tailed rat weighting 71 grams
- Bushveld gerbil weighting 73 grams
- Andean mouse weighting 69 grams
- Red-tailed chipmunk weighting 60 grams
- Long-nosed hocicudo weighting 67 grams
- Small Japanese mole weighting 65 grams
- Crab-eating rat weighting 66 grams
- Peruvian Oldfield mouse weighting 77 grams
Animals with the same size as a Southern flying squirrel
Also reaching around 12.7 cm (0′ 5″) in size do these animals:
- Temminck’s flying squirrel gets as big as 11.8 cm (0′ 5″)
- Antechinus wilhelmina gets as big as 10.6 cm (0′ 5″)
- Common vole gets as big as 11.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- Roman mole gets as big as 14.5 cm (0′ 6″)
- Brazilian slender opossum gets as big as 12.5 cm (0′ 5″)
- Paraguayan fat-tailed mouse opossum gets as big as 12.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Bishop’s slender opossum gets as big as 10.3 cm (0′ 5″)
- Guajira mouse opossum gets as big as 13.1 cm (0′ 6″)
- Rock vole gets as big as 10.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Luzon short-nosed rat gets as big as 15.2 cm (0′ 6″)