How many baby Steppe lemmings are in a litter?
A Steppe lemming (Lagurus lagurus) usually gives birth to around 4 babies.With 5 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 20 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 20 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 8.5 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Muridae family (genus: Lagurus). An adult Steppe lemming grows up to a size of 9.3 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 steppe lemming or steppe vole (Lagurus lagurus) is a small, plump, light-grey rodent, similar in appearance to the Norway lemming (Lemmus lemmus), but not in the same genus. The steppe lemming eats shoots and leaves and is more active at night, though it is not strictly nocturnal. In the wild, it is found in Russia and Ukraine in steppes and semiarid environments. Fossil remains of this species have been found in areas as far west as Great Britain.
Other animals of the family Muridae
Steppe lemming is a member of the Muridae, as are these animals:
- Pleasant bolo mouse weighting only 27 grams
- New Guinean jumping mouse with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Central pebble-mound mouse weighting only 12 grams
- Sloggett’s vlei rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Temchuk’s bolo mouse weighting only 47 grams
- Tawny-bellied cotton rat with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Mount Data shrew-rat raching a size of 20.1 cm (0′ 8″)
- Central pebble-mound mouse weighting only 12 grams
- Ashy-bellied Oldfield mouse weighting only 77 grams
- Deroo’s mouse with 3 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Steppe lemming
Those animals also give birth to 4 babies at once:
- Desert pygmy mouse
- Long-tailed giant rat
- Pacific shrew
- Shrew gymnure
- Beach vole
- California vole
- Greater hamster-rat
- Senegal gerbil
- Pale gerbil
- Ningbing false antechinus
Animals with the same weight as a Steppe lemming
What other animals weight around 20 grams (0.04 lbs)?
- Bidentate yellow-shouldered bat weighting 18 grams
- Eloquent horseshoe bat weighting 19 grams
- Little yellow-shouldered bat weighting 20 grams
- Algerian mouse weighting 16 grams
- White-eared pocket mouse weighting 23 grams
- Egyptian free-tailed bat weighting 17 grams
- Ethiopian striped mouse weighting 18 grams
- Gilbert’s dunnart weighting 19 grams
- Big free-tailed bat weighting 18 grams
- Ural field mouse weighting 18 grams
Animals with the same size as a Steppe lemming
Also reaching around 9.3 cm (0′ 4″) in size do these animals:
- Mittendorf’s striped grass mouse gets as big as 11.1 cm (0′ 5″)
- Tullberg’s soft-furred mouse gets as big as 10.1 cm (0′ 4″)
- Japanese shrew mole gets as big as 9 cm (0′ 4″)
- De Winton’s golden mole gets as big as 9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Hairy-footed gerbil gets as big as 9.3 cm (0′ 4″)
- Long-eared flying mouse gets as big as 8.7 cm (0′ 4″)
- Somali serotine gets as big as 8.4 cm (0′ 4″)
- Cotton mouse gets as big as 9.8 cm (0′ 4″)
- Mottled-tailed shrew mouse gets as big as 8.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Wandering small-eared shrew gets as big as 7.9 cm (0′ 4″)