How many baby Striped polecats are in a litter?
A Striped polecat (Ictonyx striatus) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 1 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 2 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 36 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 13 grams (0.03 lbs) and measure 15.1 cm (0′ 6″). They are a member of the Mustelidae family (genus: Ictonyx). An adult Striped polecat grows up to a size of 33.5 cm (1′ 2″).
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 striped polecat (Ictonyx striatus) – also called the African polecat, zoril, zorille, zorilla, Cape polecat, and African skunk – is a member of the family Mustelidae that resembles a skunk (of the family Mephitidae). The name “zorilla” comes from the word “zorro”, which in Spanish means “fox”. It lives predominantly in dry and arid climates, such as the savannahs and open country of Central, Southern, and sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the Congo basin and the more coastal areas of West Africa.
Other animals of the family Mustelidae
Striped polecat is a member of the Mustelidae, as are these animals:
- Amazon weasel weighting only 268 grams
- European pine marten with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Humboldt’s hog-nosed skunk with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Asian small-clawed otter with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Indonesian mountain weasel weighting only 466 grams
- Beech marten with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Burmese ferret-badger with 2 babies per pregnancy
- European polecat with 8 babies per pregnancy
- Stoat with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Tayra with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Striped polecat
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Gobi jerboa
- Banner-tailed kangaroo rat
- American marten
- Spiny pocket mouse
- Serval
- Target rat
- Silvery marmoset
- Mountain beaver
- Snow leopard
- Niobe’s shrew
Animals that get as old as a Striped polecat
Other animals that usually reach the age of 13.33 years:
- Black-backed jackal with 14 years
- American red squirrel with 12 years
- Hirola with 15.17 years
- California myotis with 15 years
- Red hartebeest with 15.25 years
- Grey long-eared bat with 15 years
- Lowland paca with 16 years
- Common dwarf mongoose with 10.92 years
- Black-footed ferret with 12 years
- Antilopine kangaroo with 16 years
Animals with the same weight as a Striped polecat
What other animals weight around 812 grams (1.79 lbs)?
- Black-tailed prairie dog weighting 797 grams
- Azara’s night monkey weighting 929 grams
- Aotus infulatus weighting 800 grams
- Amazon bamboo rat weighting 650 grams
- Gunnison’s prairie dog weighting 798 grams
- Maned rat weighting 755 grams
- Northern sportive lemur weighting 760 grams
- Nancy Ma’s night monkey weighting 791 grams
- Red acouchi weighting 949 grams
- Moonrat weighting 787 grams
Animals with the same size as a Striped polecat
Also reaching around 33.5 cm (1′ 2″) in size do these animals:
- Western quoll gets as big as 34.9 cm (1′ 2″)
- White-faced spiny tree-rat gets as big as 29.7 cm (1′ 0″)
- Rio Tapajós saki gets as big as 39.9 cm (1′ 4″)
- Great Key Island giant rat gets as big as 27.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Siberian weasel gets as big as 30.6 cm (1′ 1″)
- Giant naked-tailed rat gets as big as 31 cm (1′ 1″)
- Short-beaked echidna gets as big as 37.6 cm (1′ 3″)
- Gunnison’s prairie dog gets as big as 27.9 cm (0′ 11″)
- Omilteme cottontail gets as big as 39.2 cm (1′ 4″)
- Black dwarf porcupine gets as big as 35 cm (1′ 2″)