How many baby Vancouver Island marmots are in a litter?
A Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) usually gives birth to around 3 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 31 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 27 grams (0.06 lbs) and measure 8.9 cm (0′ 4″). They are a member of the Sciuridae family (genus: Marmota). An adult Vancouver Island marmot grows up to a size of 46.7 cm (1′ 7″).
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 Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) naturally occurs only in the high mountains of Vancouver Island, in the British Columbia. This particular marmot species is large compared to some other marmots, and most other rodents. Marmots as a group are the largest members of the squirrel family, with weights of adults varying from 3 to 7 kg depending on age and time of year.Although endemic to Vancouver Island, Marmota vancouverensis now also resides successfully at several captive breeding centres across Canada as well as several sites on Vancouver Island at which local extinction was observed during the 1990s. This is the result of an ongoing recovery program designed to prevent extinction and restore self-sustaining wild populations of this unique Canadian species. Due to the efforts of the recovery program, the marmot count in the wild increased from less than 30 wild marmots in 2003, to an estimated 250-300 in 2015.
Other animals of the family Sciuridae
Vancouver Island marmot is a member of the Sciuridae, as are these animals:
- Douglas squirrel with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Arizona gray squirrel with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Neotropical pygmy squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Least pygmy squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Mexican gray squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Long-clawed ground squirrel with 4 babies per pregnancy
- Mutable sun squirrel weighting only 390 grams
- Complex-toothed flying squirrel with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Travancore flying squirrel with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Menzbier’s marmot with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Vancouver Island marmot
Those animals also give birth to 3 babies at once:
- Raccoon
- Fat sand rat
- Atlantic Forest climbing mouse
- Arizona gray squirrel
- Heath mouse
- Asian palm civet
- Cape golden mole
- Hoary fox
- Gambian pouched rat
- North American beaver
Animals with the same weight as a Vancouver Island marmot
What other animals weight around 5.24 kg (11.54 lbs)?
- White-cheeked spider monkey usually reaching 6.24 kgs (13.76 lbs)
- Black-spotted cuscus usually reaching 6 kgs (13.23 lbs)
- Pagai Island macaque usually reaching 4.53 kgs (9.99 lbs)
- Black-flanked rock-wallaby usually reaching 4.57 kgs (10.08 lbs)
- Blue monkey usually reaching 5.04 kgs (11.11 lbs)
- Preuss’s monkey usually reaching 5.14 kgs (11.33 lbs)
- Coquerel’s sifaka usually reaching 4.19 kgs (9.24 lbs)
- Blue duiker usually reaching 4.9 kgs (10.8 lbs)
- Brown howler usually reaching 5.19 kgs (11.44 lbs)
- Agile gibbon usually reaching 5.85 kgs (12.9 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Vancouver Island marmot
Also reaching around 46.7 cm (1′ 7″) in size do these animals:
- Black bearded saki gets as big as 41.6 cm (1′ 5″)
- Dusky pademelon gets as big as 54.5 cm (1′ 10″)
- Lesser grison gets as big as 42.4 cm (1′ 5″)
- Hoolock gibbon gets as big as 54.7 cm (1′ 10″)
- Southern pig-tailed macaque gets as big as 51.3 cm (1′ 9″)
- Nine-banded armadillo gets as big as 44.3 cm (1′ 6″)
- Greater spot-nosed monkey gets as big as 54.9 cm (1′ 10″)
- Formosan rock macaque gets as big as 56 cm (1′ 11″)
- Lion-tailed macaque gets as big as 54.7 cm (1′ 10″)
- Brown howler gets as big as 51.5 cm (1′ 9″)