How many baby Southern red-backed voles are in a litter?
A Southern red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi) usually gives birth to around 5 babies.With 2 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 10 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 18 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 3 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Cricetidae family (genus: Myodes). An adult Southern red-backed vole grows up to a size of 10.1 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.
The southern red-backed vole or Gapper’s red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi) is a small slender vole found in Canada and the northern United States. It is closely related to the western red-backed vole (Myodes californius), which lives to the south and west of its range and which is less red with a less sharply bicolored tail.These voles have short slender bodies with a reddish band along the back and a short tail. The sides of the body and head are grey and the underparts are paler. There is a grey color morph in the northeast part of their range. They are 12–16.5 cm (4.7–6.5 in) long with a 4 cm tail and weigh about 6–42 g; average 20.6 g (0.21–1.48 oz; average 0.72 oz).These animals are found in coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forests, often near wetlands. They use runways through the surface growth in warm weather and tunnel through the snow in winter. They are omnivorous feeding on green plants, underground fungi, seeds, nuts, roots, also insects, snails, and berries. They store roots, bulbs, and nuts for later use.Predators include hawks, owls, and mustelids.Female voles have two to four litters of two to eight young in a year.They are active year-round, mostly at night. They use burrows created by other small animals.
Other animals of the family Cricetidae
Southern red-backed vole is a member of the Cricetidae, as are these animals:
- Northern red-backed vole with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Caatinga vesper mouse weighting only 39 grams
- Northwestern deer mouse with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Abrothrix andinus weighting only 24 grams
- Montane grass mouse raching a size of 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- Kolan vole with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Allegheny woodrat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Pleasant bolo mouse weighting only 27 grams
- Juniper vole with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Strong-tailed Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Southern red-backed vole
Those animals also give birth to 5 babies at once:
- Northwestern deer mouse
- Kowari
- Southern white-breasted hedgehog
- Common degu
- Woosnam’s broad-headed mouse
- Piebald shrew
- Sandhill dunnart
- Long-tailed dwarf hamster
- White-tailed prairie dog
- Oligoryzomys flavescens
Animals that get as old as a Southern red-backed vole
Other animals that usually reach the age of 1.67 years:
- Ningbing false antechinus with 2 years
- American water shrew with 1.5 years
- Southern red-backed vole with 1.67 years
- Ornate shrew with 1.42 years
- Eurasian pygmy shrew with 2 years
- Arctic shrew with 1.5 years
- Pilbara ningaui with 2 years
- Müller’s giant Sunda rat with 2 years
- Townsend’s mole with 1.5 years
- Laxmann’s shrew with 2 years
Animals with the same weight as a Southern red-backed vole
What other animals weight around 19 grams (0.04 lbs)?
- Pallid bat weighting 22 grams
- Altiplano grass mouse weighting 20 grams
- Striped field mouse weighting 21 grams
- Agile gracile opossum weighting 22 grams
- Pygmy rock mouse weighting 20 grams
- Greater forest shrew weighting 16 grams
- Oligoryzomys microtis weighting 22 grams
- Lesser Asiatic yellow bat weighting 20 grams
- Oligoryzomys flavescens weighting 21 grams
- White-collared fruit bat weighting 18 grams
Animals with the same size as a Southern red-backed vole
Also reaching around 10.1 cm (0′ 4″) in size do these animals:
- Pearson’s chaco mouse gets as big as 10.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Flat-headed vole gets as big as 11.7 cm (0′ 5″)
- Ammodile gets as big as 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Long-tailed pygmy possum gets as big as 9.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Fawn antechinus gets as big as 11.4 cm (0′ 5″)
- São Paulo grass mouse gets as big as 8.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Prince Demidoff’s bushbaby gets as big as 12 cm (0′ 5″)
- Black-eared squirrel gets as big as 9.5 cm (0′ 4″)
- Antillean fruit-eating bat gets as big as 8.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Chestnut tree mouse gets as big as 11.5 cm (0′ 5″)