How many baby Swamp musk shrews are in a litter?
A Swamp musk shrew (Crocidura mariquensis) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 3 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Crocidura). An adult Swamp musk shrew grows up to a size of 6.4 cm (0′ 3″).
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 swamp musk shrew (Crocidura mariquensis), or musk shrew, is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It occurs in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitat is swamps, and it is a common species in suitable habitats, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature listing it as being of “least concern”.
Other animals of the family Soricidae
Swamp musk shrew is a member of the Soricidae, as are these animals:
- Chinese mole shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Crocidura grandiceps weighting only 23 grams
- Merriam’s shrew with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Bottego’s shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Horsfield’s shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Preble’s shrew weighting only 3 grams
- Himalayan shrew with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Eurasian pygmy shrew with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Big Mexican small-eared shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Mexican small-eared shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Swamp musk shrew
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Sable
- Smooth-coated otter
- Black-eared mouse
- Desert cottontail
- Dusky caenolestid
- Crab-eating fox
- Blackish white-toothed shrew
- Père David’s mole
- Asian palm civet
- Fat sand rat
Animals with the same weight as a Swamp musk shrew
What other animals weight around 10 grams (0.02 lbs)?
- Philippine forest roundleaf bat weighting 9 grams
- Lesser hairy-footed dunnart weighting 11 grams
- Hairy big-eared bat weighting 12 grams
- Southern ningaui weighting 9 grams
- Pearson’s horseshoe bat weighting 11 grams
- Silver-haired bat weighting 11 grams
- Dark-winged lesser house bat weighting 9 grams
- Common planigale weighting 12 grams
- Hinde’s lesser house bat weighting 10 grams
- Intermediate long-fingered bat weighting 11 grams