How many baby Tundra shrews are in a litter?
A Tundra shrew (Sorex tundrensis) usually gives birth to around 8 babies.
Upon birth, they weight 5 grams (0.01 lbs) and measure 1.6 cm (0′ 1″). They are a member of the Soricidae family (genus: Sorex). An adult Tundra shrew grows up to a size of 6.8 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 tundra shrew (Sorex tundrensis) is a small shrew found in Alaska, the northern Yukon Territory, the MacKenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories, extreme northwestern British Columbia and eastern Russia. At one time, this animal was considered to be a subspecies of the Arctic shrew (Sorex arcticus).It is dark brown on its back with pale brown sides and grey underparts. Its tail is brown on top and lighter brown below. Its fur grows longer for winter. Its body is about 12 centimetres (4.7 in) in length including a 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long tail. It weighs about 11 grams (0.39 oz).This animal is found on hillsides with shrubs or grassy vegetation or dry ridges near marshes or bogs. It eats insects, worms and grasses. Predators include hawks and owls. This animal is active day and night year-round, burrowing through the snow in winter. It mates during the spring. 4 to 8 young are born in a nest under a log or in a crevice.
Other animals of the family Soricidae
Tundra shrew is a member of the Soricidae, as are these animals:
- Nicobar shrew with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Dent’s shrew weighting only 4 grams
- Malayan water shrew weighting only 55 grams
- Japanese water shrew weighting only 36 grams
- Kivu shrew with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Taiga shrew with 7 babies per pregnancy
- Alpine shrew with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Dwarf shrew with 6 babies per pregnancy
- Goodwin’s broad-clawed shrew weighting only 7 grams
- Bottego’s shrew with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Tundra shrew
Those animals also give birth to 8 babies at once:
- Campbell’s dwarf hamster
- Chestnut dunnart
- Dusky antechinus
- Taiga vole
- Southern long-nosed armadillo
- Eurasian least shrew
- Golden hamster
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel
- Grayish mouse opossum
- African wild dog
Animals with the same weight as a Tundra shrew
What other animals weight around 7 grams (0.02 lbs)?
- Elgon shrew weighting 6 grams
- Thomas’s nectar bat weighting 7 grams
- Micronomus weighting 8 grams
- Lesser long-fingered bat weighting 7 grams
- Mexican long-tailed shrew weighting 7 grams
- Northern pygmy mouse weighting 7 grams
- Geoffroy’s bat weighting 7 grams
- Wood’s slit-faced bat weighting 7 grams
- Sind bat weighting 7 grams
- Toad mouse weighting 8 grams
Animals with the same size as a Tundra shrew
Also reaching around 6.8 cm (0′ 3″) in size do these animals:
- Mexican long-tongued bat gets as big as 6.6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Dark kangaroo mouse gets as big as 7.2 cm (0′ 3″)
- Winter white dwarf hamster gets as big as 7.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Usambara shrew gets as big as 7.9 cm (0′ 4″)
- Pacific shrew gets as big as 7 cm (0′ 3″)
- Hodgson’s brown-toothed shrew gets as big as 6.4 cm (0′ 3″)
- Merriam’s shrew gets as big as 6 cm (0′ 3″)
- Montane grass mouse gets as big as 7.5 cm (0′ 3″)
- New Guinean planigale gets as big as 7.7 cm (0′ 4″)
- Pygmy fruit-eating bat gets as big as 5.5 cm (0′ 3″)