How many baby Tome’s spiny rats are in a litter?
A Tome’s spiny rat (Proechimys semispinosus) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.With 4 litters per year, that sums up to a yearly offspring of 8 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 65 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 26 grams (0.06 lbs) and measure 19.1 cm (0′ 8″). They are a member of the Echimyidae family (genus: Proechimys). An adult Tome’s spiny rat grows up to a size of 22.9 cm (0′ 10″).
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.
Tome’s spiny rat (Proechimys semispinosus), also known as Tomes’ spiny rat or the Central American spiny rat, is a species of spiny rat distributed from Honduras to Ecuador. The IUCN has assessed its conservation status as being of “least concern”.
Other animals of the family Echimyidae
Tome’s spiny rat is a member of the Echimyidae, as are these animals:
- Speckled spiny tree-rat weighting only 283 grams
- Guaira spiny rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Pallid Atlantic tree-rat weighting only 215 grams
- Goeldi’s spiny rat weighting only 284 grams
- Guyenne spiny rat with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Bristle-spined rat weighting around 1.3 kilograms (2.87 lbs)
- White-faced spiny tree-rat with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Pallid Atlantic tree-rat weighting only 215 grams
- Peruvian tree-rat weighting only 315 grams
- Guyenne spiny rat weighting only 285 grams
Animals that share a litter size with Tome’s spiny rat
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- California kangaroo rat
- Baird’s pocket gopher
- Black-and-white ruffed lemur
- Island fox
- Peters’s musk shrew
- Afghan vole
- Fawn hopping mouse
- Big-eared climbing rat
- Jaguarundi
- African golden cat
Animals that get as old as a Tome’s spiny rat
Other animals that usually reach the age of 2.58 years:
- Bicolored shrew with 3 years
- Asian house shrew with 2.5 years
- Salt marsh harvest mouse with 2.58 years
- Ooldea dunnart with 3 years
- North African elephant shrew with 3 years
- Red-tailed phascogale with 3 years
- Sandstone false antechinus with 3 years
- McIlhenny’s four-eyed opossum with 2.25 years
- Eastern harvest mouse with 2.17 years
- Lutrine opossum with 3 years
Animals with the same weight as a Tome’s spiny rat
What other animals weight around 355 grams (0.78 lbs)?
- Black-headed marmoset weighting 401 grams
- Eastern small-toothed rat weighting 357 grams
- Guyenne spiny rat weighting 285 grams
- Smoky pocket gopher weighting 403 grams
- Mutable sun squirrel weighting 390 grams
- Boyacá spiny rat weighting 284 grams
- Big-eared flying fox weighting 365 grams
- Black and rufous elephant shrew weighting 423 grams
- European ground squirrel weighting 396 grams
- Social tuco-tuco weighting 400 grams
Animals with the same size as a Tome’s spiny rat
Also reaching around 22.9 cm (0′ 10″) in size do these animals:
- Lowland ringtail possum gets as big as 22.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat gets as big as 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Lesser stick-nest rat gets as big as 20.3 cm (0′ 8″)
- Red bush squirrel gets as big as 20.9 cm (0′ 9″)
- Texas pocket gopher gets as big as 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Southern Plains woodrat gets as big as 21.3 cm (0′ 9″)
- Smoky pocket gopher gets as big as 19.2 cm (0′ 8″)
- Japen rat gets as big as 21.6 cm (0′ 9″)
- Mexican woodrat gets as big as 18.4 cm (0′ 8″)
- Gambian sun squirrel gets as big as 19.6 cm (0′ 8″)