How many baby Southern ningauis are in a litter?
A Southern ningaui (Ningaui yvonnae) usually gives birth to around 7 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 14 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 499 grams (1.1 lbs) and measure 2.3 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Dasyuridae family (genus: Ningaui). An adult Southern ningaui grows up to a size of 7.8 cm (0′ 4″).
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.
Southern ningaui refers to Ningaui yvonneae, a tiny marsupial carnivore related to the Dasyuridae family. Similar in appearance to Ningaui ridei, found throughout central Australia, this species occurs in spinifex on semi-arid sandplains across the southern coast of the continent. The fur is a tawny or greyish olive colour, light grey below, and distinguished by shades of cinnamon. Ningaui yvonneae prefers smaller prey, including insects and spiders, but capable of killing and consuming larger animals such as cockroaches and skinks. Their narrow muzzle is used with quick and fierce bites about the head to despatch their meal. The species description was published in 1983, unknown until the closer examination of the genus Ningaui established in 1975.
Other animals of the family Dasyuridae
Southern ningaui is a member of the Dasyuridae, as are these animals:
- Red-bellied marsupial shrew raching a size of 17.9 cm (0′ 8″)
- Dibbler with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Narrow-nosed planigale with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Julia Creek dunnart with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Speckled dasyure weighting only 212 grams
- Fat-tailed dunnart with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Hairy-footed dunnart weighting only 15 grams
- Atherton antechinus with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Northern quoll with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Sandstone false antechinus with 4 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Southern ningaui
Those animals also give birth to 7 babies at once:
- Long-tailed ground squirrel
- Common opossum
- Tawny-bellied cotton rat
- Northern Idaho ground squirrel
- Taiga shrew
- Red-cheeked ground squirrel
- Vinogradov’s jird
- Fat-tailed dunnart
- Sakhalin vole
- Laxmann’s shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Southern ningaui
What other animals weight around 9 grams (0.02 lbs)?
- Peninsular horseshoe bat weighting 8 grams
- Black-gilded pipistrelle weighting 10 grams
- Gnome fruit-eating bat weighting 10 grams
- Micronycteris nicefori weighting 8 grams
- Orinoco sword-nosed bat weighting 9 grams
- Schneider’s leaf-nosed bat weighting 10 grams
- Niceforo’s big-eared bat weighting 8 grams
- Baird’s shrew weighting 8 grams
- Damara woolly bat weighting 10 grams
- Seminole bat weighting 9 grams